The Adventures of a German Girl

What a week.. I'm thankful this past week is over. We had a really successful tradeshow here in Atlanta (my company produces tradeshows). After months of planning it went very well with just some tiny hick-ups. The worst part of the week was that I was away from my little boys and stayed in downtown Atlanta in a hotel for 5 nights. Monday, which was our last exhibitor move in day and a very crazy and stressful day, Brian called me in the morning to tell me that Toby (the 5months old Lab puppy) is throwing up, has diarrhea and isn't moving at all. I was freaking out. The first time I'm away and he gets sick. Brian drove him to the Vet to take blood and X-rays. From the X-rays they noticed that he has metal in his tummy. (Why do Labs eat all that crap? Toby loves dirt, eats rocks in any size, paper, cardboard, napkins, flowers, loves cigarette buds...)  It seemed very serious that they suggested to have surgery for $$$$. Brian wanted t...

It's this time again.. Today is the last day before I'm offline for a week. We have a tradeshow here in Atlanta, over 100,000 net sq ft and about 400 exhibitors. We worked like crazy for the last couple of weeks and finally since Thursday this week we are moving into the Georgia World Congress Center. Tomorrow I will check into a hotel in downtown and for the first time since February I will leave my little doggies behind (for six long days). I already miss them, weird how things change. The show is a technical textiles and equipment show and all those amazing sewing machines are on the floor. I wish I could afford one of those. Anyways.. I'm hoping for a very succesful and soon to be over (next Friday)tradeshow and after for a little down- and craft time. Until next week, Carina

...there is always Sweet Tea in the fridge! For several years now my favorite drink is Sweet Tea. Living in the South now for 3 1/2 years, I can definitely tell y'all that I became southern. Not the accent, but the food (Fried pickles, fried green tomatoes, lots of barbeque sauce (for every single meal) sweet tea and so much more) The tea can't be sweet enough and unfortunatly I could drink a gallon a day. I was always wondering how to make the perfect Sweet Tea. Finally I took some time to google and found that easy peasy recipe. Now I really don't know why it took me so long.. Ingredients 1 pinch baking soda 2 cups boiling water 6 tea bags 3/4 cup white sugar 6 cups cool water Directions Sprinkle a pinch of baking soda into a 64-ounce, heat-proof, glass pitcher. Pour in boiling water, and add tea bags. Cover, and allow to steep for 15 minutes. Remove tea bags, and discard; stir in sugar until dissolved. Pour in cool water, then refr...

I'm always looking for new things to personalize and update our house/furniture/decoration. Couple weeks ago I found a saying on Susie Harris' blog which she painted as a sign. Since I already have several signs standing around (Brian doesn't want to put holes in the walls! :( ) I printed the saying with my Silhouette machine on black vinyl. Peeling off everything but the words and cutting it to size      Laying it on our bedroom mirrow to figure out spacing I laid it on transfer paper and got rid of the sticky back side. With a Silhouette tool (or a credit card) smoothly placed the vinyl onto the mirrow and getting rid of the backing (hard to take pictures of a mirror!!) and after it was completely done, I found out that I put it up side down. Awesome job! I really didnt want to remove the words from the mirrow and decided on re-placing the screws to hang it the right way! ...

Thank god it is F-R-I-D-A-Y. Couldn't it come any sooner? I've been a single mom (to our two dogs) during the week for the last two and I can say, I am exhausted. Toby can only hold to go to the bathroom for about 5 hours (max) and our nights are a little short right now. Also I hope he will be a puppy forever, but this part I really need to be over soon. Yesterday I was featured on Better After  and was overwhelmed with comments and about 900 page views. I'm so thrilled that Lindsey featured my Wing Chair . If you haven't checked it out, go over there now! :) I made dessert (for Easter) and can tell you, it is my most favorite dessert I have ever made. You need to try this! Cheesecake Brownies , here is the recipe: Ingredients: 1 (21.5 ounce) package brownie mix (I used the one with walnuts and caramel) 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 2 tablespoons butter, softened 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 1 egg 1...

Going on a walk seperately to make live easier for me since Brian is out of time for two weeks. Same spot, different dog to roll around in pine straw. Weirdest thing that Toby stopped at the same location.   "Helping" me do yard work by stealing my gloves                                                (can you see his nose? Digging in the mud)         and again, a few days later        Waiting patiently in front of the window for Daddy to come home Catching his first (already dead!) squirrel, we had a very hard time getting it out of his mouth! Not my favorite part, but as you can see I switched dogs right after that happend. Brian took over littleone and took care of the ISSUE. Easter with the...

Spring is here with incredible warm temperatures and yard work is finally back on the schedule! :) We have a pretty big property, but most of it is taken by this HUGE detention pond which is covered in thorns and weeds and we can't do anything with it.  We are planning on reclaiming some of this space for our use again, but need professional help. Site visits have happend and we are waiting on some more quotes to come in. Since you can look into our yard from every angle, we decided on planting shrubs around and close it in to have more privacy (and at some point have a closed in space the dogs can run around) Last weekend, we went to the nursery and picked up 5 Ligustrum Recurvifola to start with.                                            ...