Fall on Bergmannstr.

I've seen it out there in blogland over the past week or so and it is definitely here. FALL! This is one of my favourite seasons. I get really excited about pulling out all the old sweaters and bundling up again. That smell is definitely in the air.

We might go and see this tonight... or this. I'm having a crazy pizza craving... if I wasn't so lazy right now we'd go for some giant pizza at Trattoria Venezia. We'll just have to settle for delivery tonight.

We had a lovely afternoon riding our bikes around the neighbourhood... above are some photos. And tomorrow we're off to Munich!

Happy Sunday.

Raining at Rocco's.

It's a beautiful/cloudy/blue skies day in berlin today. It can't seem to make up it's mind. We think that we're off to a BBQ tonight if the weather holds.

We've finally done a little reorganizing around here. I have some brand-spanking-new shelves in my office to keep me oh so extra organized. I hope that it stays that way.

On Monday we're off to Munich to check out Munich Fabric Start. I'm really excited about getting an invitation to the fair this year and can't wait to check out all the new things that will be offered in the world of fabric and notions next year!! I'm also really excited about seeing some of Munich... I was there back in 2000 for a whirlwind trip of Europe and barely saw the place.

After the trade fair we're off to Liechtenstein for a glorious weekend. While we're there there is supposedly a large wine festival going on in the next village from M.'s family... so we're naturally going to take part! We're also going to this place for some HUGE schnitzel. I couldn't resist eating dinner in a castle.

Last night we went out for dinner with friends to Rocco und seine Brüder. It was great... and they have a lot of outdoor seating. But be careful... there is a lady who waters her flowers from a balcony above while everyone is eating. A few of us ended up getting a bit wet. The table next to us got it much worse.

Happy Saturday.

lazy lazy...

... that's what I've been lately. Or maybe I just have too much on my plate right now. I really need to post some new stuff in my shops, as I promised I would do so weekly but first I wanna talk a bit about what's been going on here. Here are some photos from around our neighbourhood and some wonky strawberries.

M. and I have been doing a little bit of collaboration in an artistic way. We've successfully gotten ourselves on a weekly collaboration schedule so we'll be building yet another bloggy blog to show you what we've been making. More to come on that soon.

I think that we're finally back into a routine after our summer of visitors. I've just gotten back into going to yoga classes regularly, and have just started at a new yoga studio which seems very nice so far. It's right beside this little fabric shop that I love which will probably be dangerous in the long run, but... oh well!

I also got a little ping pong in this week with some friends. Hopefully we'll be able to step it up before ping pong season is over. If you're into playing give me a shout!

Tonight we're going to an opening at pool gallery... and maybe we'll stop by Kunst-Werke as well. If you're in Berlin and have nothing to do tonight give us a shout and come with!!

Happy Thursday!

....bbbbbbirthday out.

So here's the report from my surprise birthday event for m. We had a pretty relaxing day lying around in Tiergarten and Volkspark Friedrichshain. I've been meaning to do this all summer and can't believe how hard it has been to schedule it in. Jeesh. We accidentally found public tennis courts and will now have to dust off the tennis outfits I made for us last summer. We had originally thought that the public ping pong tables of Berlin were the equivalent of the public tennis courts of Toronto... and that it would be impossible for us to play tennis unless we bought an expensive club membership.

For lunch I took M. to one of our favourite Austrian restaurants in the city, Sarah Wiener. One of the things that I really love about this place is the beautiful room that the restaurant is housed in inside of the Hamburger Bahnhof. It's a place that makes you want to order a coffee, sit back, and read for hours... and in the middle of the day it's pretty peaceful.

In the evening I surprised M. by taking him to the Freiluftkino Friedrichshain to see Alle Anderen. It's a Geman movie so I was a little nervous thinking that I wasn't going to understand everything but to my surprise I kept up. More German films it is! It was pretty fun and well worth seeing. We need to be taking advantage of these Freiluftkinos for the rest of the summer... Berlin has so many, it's incredible.

That was pretty much it... all in all it was a really nice day.

It's been a couple of crazy movie weeks for us. Yesterday we went to see Inglorious Basterds, which was really funny but also includes a little of that Quentin Tarantino gore that everyone loves. In the past couple of years I've really started to respect Brad Pitt as an actor. He's been pretty versatile in his rolls.

We decided to go out for dinner after getting our movie tickets to waste some time before the film started... I wanted to go for Japanese food as always but M. ended up taking me here instead. All I can say is that it the evening was a true north american experience. When we came out of the movies it even smelled like an evening at home in late summer... reminded me of cottage country. How? I don't know.

Tonight I'm going to try and bake this yummy pie.

Happy Sunday.

It was a nice day.

happy day. Yesterday was M's birthday and for some reason he decided to make a huge surprise date for me. Crazy yes... but not so crazy. My birthday is tomorrow so we're just swapping days. I get to plan something for him tomorrow. So here's the run-down of what we did.

First we went to Bongout Gallery on Torstr. to see the Blexbolex show... it is only up until today so if you're reading this GO. I found his book Leute/L'Imagier des Gens last fall at a book fair and fell in love.

Then we went out for a Japanese noodle dinner to Cocolo in Mitte. It is super small but the food is oh so good... and there is a crazy selection of magazines to read while you're slurping!

After that we had a little German/English session with our new friend Sven... and learned that he has some fun projects on the go with his collective NEPOMUK. I want to buy the first book on this page.

To end the evening off M. wanted to surprise me with a concert... and leading up to it I had no idea what band we were going to see. I managed to only figure out who the band was once they went on stage (i was going along with the whole game and purposely looked away from the merch table)... it was Beirut. We saw them play a great show at Astra Kulturhaus in Friedrichshain... it was crazy packed though. A little too packed for my liking but it added to the energy of the show. Sorry if you were one of the people that I told off for trying to squeeze into the tiny space in front of me... I'm too old and have no patience for these sorts of things. In great news though... I only told people off in German and they seemed to have understood. I see some progress here!

Sorry for all the babble... have a fun Wednesday!

Wizzzzzzzzzzz.

Wow... this week has really wizzed by. I just realized that I haven't posted anything in 4 days. I need to get better at that. The only news right now is that I have added a new item to my shops... or take a look here.

We went to a surprise outdoor music festival on sunday... it was a little too hot, with no shade, and the line-ups for washrooms and beverages were a little too long but the headliner did a pretty good job... by this point the sun had gone down! It's always interesting to look at fashion though... unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera!!

Afterwards we went to a really great Japanese/Korean restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg called OMONI... it's definitely one of the best restaurants in Berlin!!

It's movie time!

In fun news, we went to see Public Enemies the other night. I loved it and won't say anything more about it except... you should see it. I kept getting it confused with Public Enemy No. 1 a french film which I also really want to see. I'm wondering if the only reason why the Michael Mann film wasn't called Public Enemy No. 1, has something to do with the french film. I think that it would have been a more fitting title. Any thoughts?

This weekend we are going to take it easy in Berlin. It feels like a long time since we've been able to just chill out at home. I'm looking forward to it! Bergmann Straße is decorated with colourful bunting down the entire street! The summer feeling is full blown right now during the day... but at night it's a different story. The nights are getting pretty chilly.

Oh, I totally forgot to post that we went to the Baltic Sea last weekend with some friends. It was super relaxing and totally beautiful! I'll post some of those photos tomorrow and over the weekend!

Happy Thursday!

Just added.

I've just added a couple new things to my online shops... for North America take a peek here, and for Europe and elsewhere take a peek here!

So you may ask why two shops?? I've decided to do it this way because I feel like it's impossible to sell everything at the North American price with the Euro being so high... and it is impossible to sell things in North America with the European price conversion because it would make everything there so darn expensive. So I thought that I would try this out and see what happens. Things are off to a slow start... but they always are!!

More from Amsterdam.

This is the last of the Amsterdam photos. Most of them were taken in Zuid... where the Olympic Stadium is. We found a canal just behind the stadium with a ton of flashy house boats. Beautiful... but not the life for me.

Tonight Bill Callahan is playing at the The Lido in Berlin. We're going to try and get tickets but it was sold out as of yesterday. Boo. On Sunday we're going to see The Whitest Boy Alive at Tape. I haven't been to enough concerts in the past 6 months. Maybe this is the start to a new beginning!

Tomorrow I'm going to post some new stuff in my shops. I've been bogged down with bureaucratic stuff for the past two weeks and have had a hard time getting to it.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

I couldn't help myself.

I've already posted today but I need to get this show on the road... and catch up to today's photos.

Here are some photos from our Amsterdam trip. It was really lovely... as I might have said earlier. Two friends of ours graciously put us up despite their teeny tiny apartment. I hope that I can return the favour if they ever come to Berlin.

So I'm going to be signing up for another German course soon. I'm feeling like I've had no progress over the summer so we've decided to only speak German together for the next month or so. I know it sounds crazy. It feels crazy too. It's amazing how hard it is to stay on the German track. Well at least while posting here I can think in English. I'll let you know how it's going.

The end of Norway as I know it.

Here are some of my last photos from Norway. They got lost in the mix and I just happened to find them today! There is something about boats that I love. I think it is more the way that they look though. I really like being on them for short periods of time but I am scared to death of them sinking. I'm not the best swimmer you see. The way the wind lashes your face and the smell... oh that smell. No matter where I am in the world, if I am on a boat it makes me think of Northern Ontario. Maybe that's because I have never really traveled to a tropical place.

Happy Monday!

Ho hum.

We had a heat-wave in Berlin today. Making it a super lazy day for us. We spent the evening playing backgammon in Volkspark Hasanheide... and then went to see a movie. The last of our visitors left today and we are feeling a little lonely around here. Even Louis, our cat, seems a little under the weather.

I don't have any interesting links today... but here are the last of the Norway photos that I'm going to post here. Tomorrow I'll start posting some photos from our Amsterdam getaway and then it's back to daily life.

Oh, before I forget... there are a lot of interesting films playing at outdoor and some independent theaters in Berlin over the next weeks. I'll post some links tomorrow.