My Last Couple Weekends in Pictures

Plant bath time

Springtime repotting time

New balcony plants

Someone's turn for a makeover

So handsome in gold

Steaks for three

Warm temps and a balcony dinner

Beers and hockey

Celebrations for the DEL champions (once again)

Beer brewing prep

Brewing progress

The braumeister (and his serious face)

Brewing protocol

Spring arrived slowly and with a couple false starts, but I took full advantage and joined the rest of Berlin in filling my shopping carts with flowers and soil last weekend to beautify the balcony, which is sadly lacking in tomatoes this year (there is an explanation for that...), as best I could.  We also enjoyed our first grill evening outdoors with Kai after I happily spruced up seasick gnomey's look with a shiny new coat of gold spray paint (he was in dire need of less green).

This past weekend, we got to celebrate the Eisbären's third championship in a row (and seventh total) on Sunday, which would have been more exciting if it weren't so expected at this point, after having spent Saturday brewing a fresh new batch of Summer Ale, just the two of us. I'm told I make a darn good brewery helper and I'm pretty freaking proud of it. Also, this batch is already showing signs of being awesome and we haven't even put it into bottles yet. Not that I'm biased or anything...

Happy Weekend!

Happy weekend, everyone! This afternoon I'm off to pick up my race packet for the Miami half-marathon on Sunday. This is my second half-marathon, so I'm more at the giddy-to-run stage than the so-nervous-I-want-to-throw-up stage this time around. I'm also planning on finalizing some entryway and living room redecorating I've been working on, which will hopefully be ready to share with you next week.

(Words I sometimes I need to remind myself of)

What are you up to this weekend? Is it cold where you are? Snowing? Or do you get to run outside and across gorgeous bridges like I do? See you next week!

P.S. This video of our hometown made me laugh out loud.

My and Nicole's dream lawn.

The Valentine's Day gift wrap I want to recreate. (Or to receive. Either one ;)

My ultimate nightmare in a lamp via Man Made DIY (if you know me, you know I hate squirrels).

Summer Garden Party Gnomes

You may or may not have figured it out by now, but sister and I are a little bit head-over-heels for gnomes. This wasn't some kind of Amelie-induced craze that had us photographing lawn gnomes throughout our travels (though we do like to let our gnomies participate in our adventures as much as possible), but it instead came about one random, cold, fall day in Florence, Italy when we purchased our first wee gnome at an outdoor market on a whim. He was so freaking cute, with his tipsy pose, that we couldn't resist. And we've been hooked ever since.

I'd love to show you pictures of some of our gnomes out on their travels, but I don't want to wander too far into crazy-person territory in this post. We're still getting to know each other, after all. But let's suffice it to say, I nearly jumped right out of my office chair when I came across these guys:

And you had better believe that I just ordered more than my fair share of these little fellows for my birthday/Fourth of July picnic!

I foresee care packages full of these being sent to the US in my future...

Gnome torches available at Car Möbel via sodapop-design