And now for something completely different...

A couple of weeks ago we had a visitor from the US staying with us in Vienna - a red meeple! Hw has already seen a lot of Asia before he came to us, and here is a post my husband composed for the BoardGameGeek Forum:

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Here is the account of Red Meeple´s visit to Vienna.

The trip from Israel seems to have been quite eventful. Still in Jerusalem he tried to pull a Mc Gyver maneuver and to escape from his envelope. The security specialists put him into a plastic envelope (like magneto´s prison) that kept him in place.

He arrived a day after RftG:BoW and was able to witness our first few tries.

The next day he came with me to a game of Imperial.

Here Red is checking out his current whereabouts. The next day he was always looking for the yellow cannon.

Next day he took my family out for some sight seeing. Here he is looking at the 1000+ years old Saint Stephens cathedral that marks the center of Vienna.

Next we walked to the Hofburg. It used to be the imperial residence but since now Austria joined this current democracy fad our newly re-elected president has his offices in there.

Betweedn Red and the Hofburg is a Fiaker. One of a hundred horse carriages that scam tourists out of their foreign money.

Next we showed him the museum of natural history. Right next is an exact copy of that building that contains the museum of fine arts. But red wanted to see the darwin exhibit showing some of his ancestors...

In this picture we caught Red trying to chat up empress Maria Theresia.

Here he´s checking out her behind...

Red, meet blue in the Museumsquartier. This used to be the stables for the imperial court. Today there are some 15 museums in that spot. And this fall some blue meeples will visit here.

Next, we took the subway to the local amusement park, the Prater. Located a little outside of the city center next to a huge park with hundreds of attractions. Red immediately went for the biggest of them all the giant ferris wheel.

We went aboard the Riesenrad and looked at all the other carts. Red told us about the first time he saw the movie The Third Man with Orson Welles.

Wow, Vienna even has a skyline. In the area of those big buildings the Spielefest is held in November. A gaming fair with some 60000 visitors. Sadly, red won´t be that long in Vienna. We went home that evening and had a nice dinner of Wiener Schnitzel. Not the hot dogs but rather breaded pork chops.

One more day. This day we tried to remind red of where he is from. In the morning, we went to a baseball game. The home team won 20 to 1.

Next, we went to an original american diner. He was very surprised that people smoked there and that there was no coleslaw with his burger, but at least the milkshake was fine.

In the evening, we went to an evening of gaming. This game of Brass was the last thing he saw of Vienna before he was put into a special padded envelope for criminally insane meeples and off he went to
Netherlands.

We kept him so busy, that we heard him snoring from the mailbox.

Here he is with his best friend in Austria.

Bon voyage little guy!

The doll no little girl can resist!

Hello there,
glad you found your way here :-)
We had a "rest and relaxation" weekend here - and boy did I need it! I went to visit my friend Anja on friday - they had some things to organize and do some shopping to do that they couldn't take their kids along to (a set of swings for their garden - a surprise and big enough to need the whole car). So I took my two kids to their apartment and together with Anjas three little daughters I had five kids to watch. Lea is almost seven, but the rest are all 4 and under...

I actually managed to get some sewing done. I don't have a sewing machine, so I either have to sew my dolls by hand (a pain in the butt - especially when it comes to doll clothing) or sew at her place. I have to say that I think I used the time pretty well. The kids where not too bad, just very loud - my head hurt badly when I came home...

Anyway, what has all that to do with dolls, you may ask? well, I had four girls there to ask about dolls - two of them old enough to actually have an opinion about dolls, and they where begging me to make them dolls like this :-)

This little princess is 12" tall (30cm), has 4 different kinds of yarn in her hair and bright blue eyes. Her dress took a long time to make, thats why she costs a bit more than the other dolls her size...

Also new in my shop today - a pink little bunting baby and a friendly 12" boy. you can go see them in my etsy shop!

And just in case you where wondering - yes, Anjas girls will get dolls like that. For Christmas :-D Please don't tell them :-)

The first bunch has arrived!

I am very happy to announce that the first three dolls are now for sale in my etsy store! The first two are pretty tall, 16" each, made from cotton jersey, with soft bodies and waldorf style heads.

The red headed little boy has brown eyes and freckles and wears a pair of jeans and a simple shirt. I absolutely loved doing his hair - the yarn was so much fun to crochet! Please click on the pictures to view them in full resolution - my monitor shows weird patterns on the dolls skin, but in full resolution mode they are gone, so please go and take a look.

The little girl has almost mysterious green eyes and black hair with blue and teal highlights - I love the way it looks! Her hair is not fully styleable, but her shortish hair can be styled a little bit and if any strands of hair come loose, you can always tuck them back into her blue headband.

The third doll is a tiny baby with closed eyes. It has no body as such, just a bunting made from very soft cotton velour. Its hat has a knot for teething babies to chew on, so it can be a perfect first companion for a baby - or a great present for an expecting mom. If you want one in a different color, just tell me - I'll see what I can do!

And on a more personal front, if you are wondering why I'm blogging on mothers day: my husband has taken the kids outside (I think they are going to a childrens museum) so I can have some mommy-me-time. And what do I do? Work. *sigh* I'll go play sims 3 now - my husband got me a new graphics card for my computer for mothers day :-D We're such nerds...

So please - enjoy your mothers day, check out anita renfroe's mom song on youtube and get a little present if you order anything from my store today. Just tell me your favourite part from the mom song :-)

Keep creatin'
Vee

where did april GO??

Hello out there - is there anyone reading this anyway?

I know that I was thinking at the beginning of april that I really should get at least a short post out there to tell you guys out there that I'm OK - and now its may already...

I have been really busy with making my little girl happy at easter - the doll you can see in the picture is completely made by me! I had so much fun making it and my daughter enjoys playing with her "bupu" (puppe is the german word for doll and that's how she says it), that I decided that I need to make more dolls. Now, I am sure there are people out there who want a doll like this and are willing to pay my price for them - but I have no idea how to find them!

There is only a listing for a custom doll in my etsy shop at the moment, but as soon as the four dolls that are sitting here have got some clothes on, I will put them in my shop. That should be happening on thursday - so if you want one, come and get it now - my prices WILL go up as my dolls get even better...

Here is another doll I made - I originally planned to sell her, but now I like her so much I don't really want to.

For now, I'm going to keep her - I need a model for my 16" dolls clothing anyway :-)

The 12"/30cm doll size is great for taking along everywhere! my daughter doesn't want to let go of her doll at all...

If you have a great Idea how to promote these dolls, let me know! If you are interested, I'll give you a promotion code - and you'll get something from my shop if enough people use your code...

So, thats all for now - I hope I'll get better at blogging regularly.. I'll try, I promise!

Hugs,

Vee

Long time no see...

Hey there,

I got so used to blogging somewhat regularly this year, it feels like I haven't written in an eternity. I haven't even told you that I'm available as a scrapper for hire now! In the days of digital photography everyone takes tons of pictures now (at least my EHD is almost bursting... how about yours?), but we don't look at them as much because well, a photoalbum on your lap is just so much nicer...

Here is my solution: digital scrapbooking! and once the pages are just the way you want them, you can have them printed as a photobook. There are many awesome designers of digital scrapbooking kits, just click on one of my fan blinkies to take a look :-)

I'm sure after having a look around you'll think this is a great idea - but do you have the time/resources or even wish to do it yourself? This is wher I come in. I offer a variety of scrapbooking pages in my etsy store for you to try out! if you like the LO (Layouts) that you get and wish to own a complete album we can arrange that easily! I can scrap your wedding/baby/pet/holiday/vacation pictures to give you a nice 20-40 page album that you can have printed.

You can look at the pictures in my shop to see some examples or you can have a look at my gallery at weeds and wildflowers. Everything will be made for you, I will not use ready made Layouts (also called quickpages). I might use templates for photo placement, but I usually make them myself...

so why don't you come over to my store? have a look around - maybe it's not the digital LOs that catch your eye, but there are many other things that you could love (and buy :-))

Hugs from sunny Vienna,
Vee

P.S.
Lilith is really walking now! This is soo much fun to see - I'll post a picture soon!

And the winner is...

the OWOH give away is over and I have met so many nice people! Thank you all for your sweet, funny, inspiring and most of all MANY comments!

I would love to give you all a window star, but then I would never stop folding and the shipping would wreck me, too ;-) So I used random.org to determine a winner! The winning number was 27, and the 27th comment was written by...

**Drum rolls, please!**

Grace!

Congratulations, I have already sent you an e-mail asking for the color you want the star to be. I will post a picture of the finished star once its done right here on my blog.

I decided to give away one set of my "Knights and Princesses" ACEOs and one set of my felt ACEOs to people who commented that they like them.

So to all of you that didn't win - if you go to my etsy store and buy something, mention that you participated in my OWOH giveaway and you get a small star for free. I will hold another giveaway once I reach 100 fans on my facebook fanpage - so go over there and become a fan! *pkes sidebar*

Hello there,
Man, what a busy week...
My son is currently at home from kindergarden and he has a lot of energy, I can tell you! Needless to say that time to create things for my etsy store is in short supply :-)
Anyway, if you're following this blog (or come here once in a while), you know that I'm on this super sweet unofficial etsy tem and to say thank you to the girls (and one guy) I offered to feature them. Its been a while since the last feature, though :-( Also, I promised you some new graphics for this blog - how do you like the new look?

Featured Artisan today:
keikeaux

Jennifer lives in Orange County, California. She has a fondness for dark chocolate, clothes sans patterns and pretty beads! She joined Etsy in September 2008 and began selling in March 2009.
Where do you sell your creations?

http://www.keikeaux.etsy.com
http://www.keikodesignsjewelry.etsy.com

Can I follow you on facebook/somewhere else on the web?

http://www.facebook.com/keikeaux
http://www.flickr.com/photos/keikeaux/

Why do you sell on etsy?

I love the concept of buying and selling handmade items in a collective venue such as Etsy. There is something inherently special about giving and receiving something that was handcrafted with care.

I have a Bachelors degree, and am currently seeking a creative job. In the meantime, my abundance of free time is spent designing and creating imaginative jewelry. It would be wonderful to do this full time. However, my Etsy shops provide just enough for coffee right now.

What is it you're making and how did you get into it?

I design and create jewelry with semiprecious gemstones and high quality glass. I like classic designs with a twist – maybe it’s a different texture or asymmetry in the pattern. I’ve been making jewelry for about three years. Once I found a local bead shop, I was hooked. Completing a necklace that began with a single unique bead is very rewarding.

Any tips for other artisans/crafters?

Decide on a craft that you truly enjoy. Make sure that it is something you won’t quickly tire of. I have many containers of beads and finished pieces. Yet I still have a desire to create more. Invest in quality materials too. It will show through in your work.

Do you want to offer a promo code/give away something to the blog readers?

I am giving away one pair of earrings FREE to a lucky reader of Vee’s blog. Here’s how to enter:
Heart my shop, “Keikeaux”, on Etsy, and send me a convo that mentions my feature on Vee’s blog and your favorite item in my shop. I will randomly select a winner from the entries received. Please enter by February 18, 2010.


Now go have fun browsing her store - I know I did!