I’m pretending today is a snow day. We do have about an inch of snow (our first snow that has stuck this winter!), but now that I’m an adult, of course work isn’t canceled when there’s snow. Especially in Hamburg. They’re so much better at dealing with the snow than the DC/MD/VA area!

But I only had one early class this morning, after which I went back home and went right to sleep.  Since I don’t have to work this afternoon, I’m just going to pretend that the rest of the day was canceled due to the snow, just like the good old days!

Remember that feeling as a kid when school was canceled? It was so exciting because those days were always so few and far in between that it was really special. We could finally pull out those sleds we got for Christmas and spend the day making snowmen, having snowball fights with the neighborhood kids, or sledding down the neighbor’s big hill. Those days were absolutely marvelous, and there was always a cup of hot chocolate ready for us when we got back inside. One year, I remember making a spray bottle with water and yellow food coloring, and my brother Jonathan and I laughed ourselves silly as we went around to every tree and sprayed the base of it yellow as if our dog had peed there. Yellow snow!

Now that I’m an adult, I’m happier to stay inside, eat a bagel and drink hot chocolate and just keep everything cozy. We’re going snowboarding in Austria next weekend for one week, so I’ll get to “play” in the snow then!

Happy snow day, Hamburgers!

First, I tried this tutorial from Alisa Burke to make roses out of ribbon. I had gotten some pretty shades of ribbon from Tobi’s sister for Christmas – white, gray, and pewter – and was happy to give that a try. I also used another ribbon I had saved from Christmas wrapping and sewed a fun button in the middle that I got from a flea market.

Next I tried the chiffon flower, via this tutorial over at Project Wedding. Chiffon frays a lot, so it was a little more difficult to work with, but has a much softer, more flowery feel to it. (Does anyone have any ideas on keeping chiffon from fraying? Google told me it’s best with anti-fray glue, but I don’t have any of that.)

Then I modified the pattern and tried cutting out hearts, fanning them out, and sewing them together. They were much smaller, of course. I also tried one with the satin I had.

The last thing I tried was this ranunculus. I’m going to try it with more layers next time to make it a bit fuller. You achieve the curled look with chiffon* when you pass it over an open flame…it’s a pretty neat trick! This is actually my second one, as the first one had a few brown spots from getting too close to the candle. The tutorial came from this awesome girl with an adorable French voice. Even if you don’t understand French, the video explains the process perfectly.

*If you try that method with satin, it will catch on fire. Just sayin’…from experience.

I also started another little project with seed beads and proceeded to dump a bunch of them on the floor. This crafty trick helped me pick them up from the ground a little more easily!

But what kind of food is American that they don’t already eat here? Hamburgers? (Somehow, in Hamburg…lol!)

But then I had an idea: nothing is more American than Tex Mex! And for dessert, I’ll make cupcakes! I enjoy baking, so that was good to go. And preparing tortillas was super easy. Just a lot of chopping to make salsa and guacamole, and then pretty much just sticking everything out onto the table for people to build their own tortillas. Easy preparation! Just heated up the tortillas in the oven, browned 1000 grams of beef and heated up some refried beans (imported and sold at 2.50€ per can – I splurged and bought two of them…that’s about $6.50 for two cans of beans, people!).

Everything went well and my guests really enjoyed having something different.

Maple Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

The cupcakes were another story. I used this recipe for Maple Cupcakes but didn’t have all of the ingredients I needed. Eggs being the most important missing item. Here in Germany there are rules about what you can and can’t buy on Sundays – most grocery stores are closed unless they’re near a train station, and then those stores actually lock up frozen goods and put away other items. You can only buy small quantities of things (not a 6-pack of 1.5 liter bottles of water, for example) and you can only buy items that are necessary for traveling.

So I wasn’t sure if I could buy eggs. But luckily, you can substitute them with quite a few other ingredients, like applesauce or bananas or even water! But I read buttermilk is a good thing to use for that because it makes the cake really soft and moist. But of course I didn’t have any buttermilk either…however, there is a substitute for that, too! All you have to do is take a scant cup of milk and mix it with 1 tbsp of either lemon juice or white vinegar. I had neither lemons or white vinegar, but I used some apple cider vinegar and it worked just fine. Let it sit for 10 minutes and then you’ve got homemade buttermilk!

So the buttermilk replaced the eggs and the cupcakes still tasted great. And for the frosting, I wanted to make something not too sweet and opted for a nice cream cheese frosting. Again, I didn’t have everything the recipe called for, as I didn’t have quite enough powdered sugar. But apparently you can make your own powdered sugar using corn starch and regular granulated sugar. And of course I didn’t have any corn starch…whoops. But flour worked just fine and my blender mixed it up into a nice sugar cloud for me which resulted in powdered sugar. Thank goodness for blender lids, otherwise I’m sure there would have been sugar all over the kitchen!

They turned out rather nice. They were a little messy, but we ate them with spoons directly from the silicone baking cups and it was perfect!

*For my American readers, that’s August 4, 2012, not April 8th! The Europeans write the date backwards! We’re having a summer wedding!

It’s just a short little clip – but I had fun making it! I’ve always loved stop motion clips and really wanted to do something like that for my own wedding. My technique was simple. Our hardwood floors are pretty and so I decided to go with a natural theme, so I cut some felt to make grass and a simple tree. I sewed some sequins on a felt heart, added a few other props such as cotton balls, mini pom-poms and a piece of twine. I got the mirror letters at a craft store nearby (I already had the T&S and went back to get more for the date) and am planning on reusing them to work into a piece of art to commemorate our wedding date! During the movie, I wanted the date and letters to look like they were dancing, so I moved them around a lot too.

I just set it up on the floor with a little tripod, put my camera on a 2-second timer to get clearer shots, and took about 160 pictures, moving things around a little bit each time. Some shots are a little unfocused, you might notice, but that doesn’t bother me. It somehow adds to the charm! The song is by Brett Dennen and it’s called “Blessed”, which I think really embodies the feeling of having a wedding – “this is the most magnificent life has ever been” and ”I’m going to celebrate being alive”. For sure!

Another bonus is that it’s so much more fun than sending out cards (and cheaper too, especially with overseas guests!) and it’s something you can always watch again and again.

We’ll be sending out paper invitations in the next few months, but now everyone can make their travel arrangements and hopefully get a cheaper airfare by booking early. Relatively cheap, at least, considering it’s high season. Sorry about that. But trust me — Hamburg is so much better in the summer!

So, it’s official: August 4th! Only 193 days left!

So enjoy your weekend, everyone! And if you’re looking for a laugh, here are my two favorite videos I saw online this week:

One Happy Dog
(click to see movie – there was no embedding option)

and

a pretty great movie with a chameleon:

So, I have a confession…

I’m pretty picky about shoes.

I absolutely cannot stand blisters, and I have learned not to buy shoes that don’t feel comfortable from the very first moment I put them on, because I won’t wear them.

I’ve had to buy high heels for various special events (weddings, dances, prom, etc.). After all of that effort to find comfy dress shoes, they don’t get worn all that often!

So, I’m thinking that for my wedding, I’ll give these shoes a second chance. By not buying a new pair of shoes, it will save both money AND closet space!

So, to spruce up my old shoes a little, and to make them feel a bit more special, I’m thinking two words: shoe clips.

The internet has been helpful in my search for ideas. These ones by ban.do (above) are super-cute, of course – they made their way around the blogosphere about a year ago. And there are many different flower shoe clips available for purchase at shops such as these ones by B Poetic on Etsy.

But I’m itching to do something crafty again, so I found some fabric at Karstadt (they have a pretty good selection!) and ordered some shoe clip bases online and will try my hand at making my own pair this weekend!

It’ll be my first DIY for the wedding!

Seeing as Tobias proposed to me via crossword puzzle, it only seems natural to incorporate that into our wedding day somehow.

Armored Penguin has a wonderful crossword puzzle maker. I recommend following their instructions to upload your answers and clues from a .doc file, because that way, you can save it and easily make changes without typing in all of your questions again.

They offer HTML puzzles and .pdf files with various fonts available to choose from. You can even print an answer key if you need it.

It took me a bit of tweaking and tinkering with it, but I finally ended up with a puzzle I’m happy with. I stayed up late on Saturday night working on it. Now I just have to make another one in German!

I think it’s a sweet way to pay tribute to Tobi’s wonderful proposal, and perhaps it’s a way for the guests to learn more about the bride & groom.

As nervous as I was, I am now also a little excited, which I realized I haven’t felt that way about French in a long time! My French is certainly good enough, and I do have a degree in it after all. So it’s pretty exciting to be able to use my degree, and a challenge to teach French in German to a group of beginners.

And while we’re on the subject of speaking and communication, here is a video I found on Swiss-Miss (great design blog, by the way!) entitled “Every Presentation Ever: Communication FAIL”.  Pure genius. Seriously!

Ever been to (or given?!?) a presentation like that? Brings back memories of college…

I can’t wait to do some projects with them! I wasn’t exactly sure what to make (although I could always do old-fashioned embroidery, of course!) but Pinterest came to the rescue.

Here are a few things I may try sooner or later:

1. Friendship bracelets! A basic pattern is something I could do from memory, from all those years ago when I was 11 or 12. But this tutorial jogged my memory on how to make a chevron pattern. Then there’s also a more modern interpretation which is really popular at the moment – friendship bracelet chains. I’d like to try that on a smaller scale.
2. Wrap around sticks. I have a “bouquet” of sticks in an old olive can that could use some sprucing up, just like this rainbow wrapped wreath seen via Duo Fiberworks.
3. Clothespin dolls! I made tons of these as a kid, using matchsticks or toothpicks with the ends broken off for arms. I’ll definitely have to make a few more!

And as far as storage goes, I think I’m going to try wrapping them onto clothespins like this:

Early this morning, at 6 a.m., I hopped on a train to Berlin for my appointment at the US Consulate to do some paperwork related to my wedding.

I slept most of the way over, in that special state of train dozing — in and out of consciousness, somehow waking up right as the conductor was there to check my tickets, even though I hadn’t heard him — as a large group of Polish people chattered around me. In my strange state of dreaming, I thought I even understood some of what they were saying! I’m pretty sure my mouth was open while I was sleeping, though. Umm…talk about embarrassing!

I made it to Berlin and followed my directions I had written for myself on how to get to the embassy. S7 to Zoologischer Garten, U9 to Spichernstraße, U3 to Oskar-Helene-Heim. I had been nervous about navigating a transportation system I didn’t really know. (Last time I just blindly followed Tobias around the town. I’ve got a bad sense of direction anyway.) But it ended up being quite easy, and I was impressed with my directional skills when I guessed the right direction walking out of the  U-Bahn station to get to the Embassy.

At the Embassy

Soon I saw an American flag on a big building, and a line of people standing out front. So I stood behind them. A [German] policeman outside asked me if I had any cell phones, USB sticks, mp3 players, cameras, or electronic equipment. I told him I had left it all at home (without a phone…another reason I was nervous about going to Berlin by myself!) and he joked around with me a bit – he was in a really good mood!

A good-humored American guard called a group of us in to the security check area. Easy peasy. I had gotten there a little bit early for my appointment, like around 9:40.  But that wasn’t a problem –  had an appointment list and they let me come in early (and it didn’t feel like they were making an exception or anything). So I went up and got things taken care of, and I don’t know if it was my luck (take THAT, Friday the 13th!) but I was finished and out of there by 10:00 – which was my appointment time!

That meant I had extra time to go explore a bit around Berlin. Although I didn’t really explore much – I remembered the name Hallesches Tor, so I just went there and walked. (VIP side note: I also found a Dunkin Donuts and bought a dozen to take back home with me, which I then walked around with for 2 hours. But for next time I now know that there are two Dunkin Donuts in Berlin Hauptbahnhof!) So I walked down the U6 line and ended up at Unter den Linden (a huge shopping boulevard with the Berliner Tor at one end) and then took the S-Bahn back to the central station. I spent the rest of my time there looking in shops and ate lunch at McDonald’s while waiting for my 1:24 p.m. train. And then I headed back to Hamburg, sleeping (once again with my mouth open…oy) most of the way back.

My Tips for going to the US Embassy and Consulate in Berlin

A big reason for my nervousness about this process was the lack of answers I found online to some questions I had, so I was worried I wouldn’t have the right stuff. So here are a few tips I’d like to share on the experience:

• You’ll see it on your appointment print-out, but the embassy is located at 170 Clayallee. NOT the one near the Berliner Tor! Clayallee is about 40 minutes away from the Hauptbahnhof station.
• Make sure you check the prohibited items list on the Embassy’s website. For this reason, I didn’t even bring any of those items with me from Hamburg. If you’re staying longer, leave them at your hotel. It will expedite the security checkpoint if you don’t have any of these items. That said, they have (tiny) lockers for you to keep prohibited items, so if you absolutely need your cell phone, or if you forget you’ve got a USB stick or a lighter in your bag, it won’t get thrown out. You’ll just have to pick it back up at security on the way out.
• After you’ve cleared security, the guards will tell you where to go, but it’s easy - you just go inside the doors to the building and follow some red signs. The first floor is for visas. I didn’t need that, however, and went past the guard on the first level to the American Citizen Services section on the 2nd floor.
• There’s a sign that says to go to windows 1 or 2. If you’re lucky like I was, the office will be empty when you get there. If not, you may have to wait in line, but that’s no biggie. I went to the lady with my documents. She told me what was necessary. (See below.)
• As with any notarized document, if you’ve brought your own document to get notarized, wait to sign it until the notary tells you to.  For it to be valid, it must be signed in a notary’s presence. I brought a permission slip I wrote to allow my mother to pick up my birth certificate for me, which I just typed up and printed out to bring with me. (Included in that were my name, place & date of birth, my mother’s name and current address, and of course the purpose of the letter.)
• If you’re looking for a Single Status Affidavit or a Marriage Affidavit (Familienstandzeugnis or Ehefähigkeitsbescheinigung), you DON’T need to bring your own letter. I had brought one just in case, because I wasn’t sure if they had their own form. They do. So just tell them you need one and they’ll type up the affidavit in English and German. They’ll need your passport and your current address, as well as the name of the courthouse you’ll be getting married at.  Wait while they type up the documents, and then they’ll call you over to another window to sign the document. The document is in English and German, and does not need an Apostille.
  
• The Single Status Affidavit is just basically a document that says you’ve never been married before and that you are not in the US Armed Forces. (If you have been married before, then divorce papers would of course be necessary.) The notary will ask you to read the documents to verify the information is correct, and that you understand the document, as they are not permitted to explain the contents to you. You then swear (or declare) that the information is true, and they will instruct you to sign the form. You put it back through the window and they’ll sign it, and then you’re official!
• You’ll need a birth certificate with an Apostille as well, which you can only get in the state where the birth certificate was issued. Since I’m not planning on going back to the US before the wedding, that was my reason behind the permission slip for my mom to pick it up for me. It’s possible via mail and via VitalChek, but the reason I decided not to do it through them was because they can’t get the Apostille part, at least for Washington DC. So I figured it was just as easy to get my mom to pick up my birth certificate as it would be to pay a company to do it.

So that’s a list of the information I wish I could have found before going there. Hopefully it will help someone out there with the same questions!

And last but not least, here are the links I read for information on all this stuff:

• Embassy information on getting married
• Obtaining vital records (birth/marriage/death certificates)
• Washington DC Department of Health Guidelines for Obtaining a Birth Certificate
• US Embassy in Germany Notarial Services
• E-How article on How to Get Married in Germany