Things that you sacrifice when living overseas...

It may seem all glamorous and wonderful living in another country but its not always "tea cakes and scones". (Or in my case, schnitzel and noodles). There are things that you have to come to terms with while you're out of "America".

~ Your refrigerator is small. About the size of a kitchen cabinet... As a matter of fact, that's usually what it looks like too!

~ Closets are not part of the vocabulary in Europe. Ikea will become a necessity while living here.

~ Gasoline costs an arm, leg, kidney and part of your liver. Never run out of gas after the on post gas station is closed or you might as well sell your first born to pay to fill your tank.

~ Air Conditioning is a myth. Europeans think its frivolous and unnecessary and will laugh if you ask them about it. (Silly Americans! Why be cool and comfortable when we can sweat to death?)

Which brings me to ceiling fans...

~ You will have a hard time finding a house with them and when you do, they are there because another American family installed them while they were here.

~ Window screens are another of the frivolous American things. Who needs screens? I mean, there's no air conditioning or ceiling fans so we will open the windows and get eaten by Mosquitos the size of your hand. Sounds logical...

~ Bugs and critters are bigger here. There's no bug spray to kill them, no screens to keep them out and if that doesn't help you sleep at night, I don't know what will.

~ Everything is taxed. Road tax, tv tax... You own it? There's a tax for it.

~ Europeans love their pets. My neighbor has 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 bunnies, 2 guinea pigs and a partridge in a pear tree. Dogs go everywhere. Want to go out for dinner? The couple in the corner has a dog sitting next to them at the table. Yep.

~ Deodorant is not widely used. Going grocery shopping on the economy is "scented" with sweat, swamp butt and under arm funk. It's wonderful.

~ Washers can fit about 4-5 bath towels (if you really squeeze) and take about 3 hours to wash (and 2-4 hours to dry). Blankets and large items must be driven to the closest laundromat on post to be washed. But when you get there its survival of the fastest. Midnight - 5am is your best bet for getting an empty washer.

~ Trash runs every 2 weeks and you can fit 2 trash bags in your "wheelie bin". Why? Landfills, recycling and money... Recycle, recycle, recycle.

~ Parking with your big American vehicle is difficult at best and if you happen to find a spot big enough to squeeze into (and I mean park, climb out the back window and pray that you can get back into the car) you will have to pay by the hour to park. Wanna park without paying? That'll be about $100 in fines.

~ When ordering a drink, ice is not a given and water is not always "flat". If you order "water" you'll get a glass with room temperature sparkling water, a slice of lemon and no ice. Blech!

It's not all bad though. There's tons of good, but it's definitely a culture shock in the beginning. I'm not sure what I'll do when I finally get a closet and some central air conditioning...

The Parker Quilt

First, I started with a drawing...  And I pinned it to the wall above my quilting station.
I knew what size quilt I needed (Twin/Full) and looked up the average measurements online.  Then I drew my ideas and colored them for Parker to "approve".
He chose the right half of the design so that's what I worked with and all of the counting is for the right hand side of the design as if it were the whole quilt.

I broke it down into the number of squares I would need of each color and fabric.

Then I picked out fabric to go along with the jeans

And cut it into 6" x 6" squares using my rotary cutter.

 I had some odd shaped leftover bits so I made them into a pillowcase for practice.

If the cat doesn't sit in the scraps basket, the scraps will fall out so keep that in mind...

Once I had all of my 6" x 6" squares cut out it was assembly time!  Using a water soluble marker, I traced my cutting lines.

Basically, I turned the squares facing each other and drew a diagonal line down the center.

I sewed at 1/4" on each side of the line I drew.

This will make 2 perfect 1/2 and 1/2 squares.

This is just a preview of my modge podge put together of it so far... 

I went to spoonflower.com and designed 2 fabrics for the backing of the quilt!

The Name Game

We love to play the name game!  Especially in the car...  It is a great distraction from arguing.  So when I start to hear the high pitched voices, I bust out Parker Parker Bo Barker, Banana Fanna Fo Farker, Me My Mo Marker... Parker!

It works every single time.  As the boys get older they start to try out different funny sounding words like tractor.  Parker's FAVORITE word to try is Daddy.  When he gets to the "faddy" part, Jason says "Are you callin' me fat?" and everyone says ooooooooh and lots of giggles.  Now Parker will stop at the "fo" and Jason will yell "FADDY" and then the giggles again.

Now yesterday in the car, after a few verses of random funny words, Parker says "say truck" or "do itch".  Only Parker...

The Name Game Video

Just in case you don't know about the name game, you can watch Shirley Ellis sing it.

Bryant's Footsies!

So in typical male style, Bryant waited until he couldn't walk to tell me he has "sores" on his feet...

SO...  These are plantar warts.  We treated them at home with liquid nitrogen yesterday.  We took pictures so he could see his "boo boo".  And, in the nature of blogging, I am sharing with you.  

You're Welcome.

What now?

Well, that sucks... I guess I need to cook dinner.

Organization

I happen to LOVE the way everything looks and how I feel when my surroundings are "in order".  This is my yarn stash.  My favorite part of the house!

Skull Appliqué

First attempt at a skull and crossbones appliqué. It looks good but I need to add some details. Hmmmm... Thoughts?