Grow Your Blog

 

Welcome to my blog and welcome to Vicki's Grow Your Blog party! 

My name is Birgit, and I live in Munich, Germany. Here you can see my sweet cat Flecki and me.

Please come in and have a look around.

Just remember -- keep calm because I am specialest special.

Let's take a stroll around my blog and my world.

Visiting my blog, you will see some photos of my hometown Munich. Here's the fountain at Karlsplatz (Charles' Square).

I will also take you to unexpected places like this ladies room at a local garden center.

I love surprises like this one -- last year, I discovered these monster trucks on the parking place of a local supermarket.

Always expect everything -- I might reveal the skeletons hanging in the closet.

Now it's time for a little snack -- what about grapes?

Or do you rather have a melon smoothie?

What about ice-cream and fruit? That's something I can always eat.

Feeling energized again? Perfect!

So we can get crafty now -- take an old jam plastic container.

Some more recycling -- punching snowflakes from a silver cardboard from a box originally containing chocolate covered marshmallows.

Glue the snowflakes along the rim of the plastic container.

For some extra sparkle, put glitter dots on the snowflakes.

 

The snowball candy looked great in that bowl.

 

Aside for traditional crafts, I love to create digital images. I recently took a couple of photos of a stripped billboard -- such an interesting texture as well as different colors.

I used one of the photos of this billboard series as background for my heart of postcards.

I share photos of things which catch my eye. I love this cute group of cats which I saw in an Asian restaurant.

My favorite cat is Flecki though. You will see photos of him being awake...

... and asleep.

I enjoy taking a close look at things -- like this beautiful flower.

 

This grasshopper was a welcome guest in the garden last summer.

You might hear about Halloween, too.

You will be the first ones who hear about encounters with magical creatures in my neighborhood -- like this gnome living in a tree.

Earlier this week, I saw these owls in the window of a flower shop. The owl on the very right will stand on the birthday table of my mother.

I love to take photos of flowers and plants -- Rapunzel is great at posing with them.

Isn't the fabric of her skirt just wonderful?

If you stick around here, you might see Herbie again.

You will hear about favorite movies like Penguins of Madagascar ...

... and favorite books like the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley.

I keep looking for interesting products like this "Frozen yoghurt" ...

... or this "creamy ice" candy.

It's a new Haribo product.

Flecki wonders if you can expect a door prize. Sure thing!

You can win a note pad with 40 sheets in the design of the 50 Euro bill.

Please leave a comment below -- I am looking forward to hearing from you and will try to answer all comments either by email or by commenting on your blog. One entry per person even if you have more than one blog. Please make sure that I can contact you either by email or by accessing your blog. The final day for leaving a comment is February 14th -- the winner (to be found with the help of a random number generator) will be announced and informed on February 15th.

I hope I can soon welcome you back to my blog -- heartfelt greetings! 

H is for Hair Color

It's kind of funny when you realize that you share your natural hair color with a fictional character. In my case, that's Anna from Disney's Frozen.

I hope you enjoy my H choice for Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday.

My Top Ten Books of 2013 & World Book Day

 

In no particular order, here are my favorite books of 2013:

1. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (5/5)
2. The House Of Gentle Men by Kathy Hepinstall (5/5)
3. Trust Your Eyes by Linwood  Barclay (5/5)
4. Into The Forest by Jean Hegland (4/5)
5. The Iron Druid Chronicles: I. Hounded by Kevin Hearne (5/5)
6. Das Labyrinth erwacht (The Maze Awakes) by Rainer Wekwerth (5/5)
7. The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman (5/5)
8. Joyland by Stephen King (5/5)
9. Silber: Das erste Buch der Träume (Silver: The First Book Of Dreams) by Kerstin Gier (5/5)
10. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (5/5)

Do we share any favorite books? By the way, Rainer Wekwerth and Kerstin Gier are German authors, hence the English translation of the book titles in brackets. You might know Ms. Gier's gem trilogy about time traveling starting with Ruby Red. The first book of her new trilogy has such a great cover, I couldn't resist making a little photo session.

Another great read last summer was Dan Brown's new thriller Inferno. 

Today is World Book Day, so I want to show you another favorite book from my childhood -- The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. What better way to show the story's character than to present it in a mirror? I was delighted to win a voucher for a photo book for this photo.

 

Last but not least, I have to show you something which I oddly miss. As some of you know, I often borrow books from the Book Bus which comes to my neighborhood once a week. Until February 2013, no computers were used for the lending process. You just had a paper library card with a number (my number was G 163), and the librarian wrote that number on a card which could be found at the back of each book in a little pocket. Then you got a blue card with a due date in exchange for the book card.

The last date was always the one you had to keep in mind. A simple system -- and it worked like a charm! Now each book is scanned, and you get a printout with the due dates -- that feels colder and less personal. Gone are the days of book cards, blue due date cards, and paper library cards. Instead I have to take along a piece of plastic each time -- I am no longer G 163. Oh well...

Grow Your Blog

Welcome to my blog and welcome to Vicki's Grow Your Blog party!

My name is Birgit and I live in Munich, Germany. Here's a photo of me wearing my new Halloween hair circlet. (Jeni, this photo is especially for you since you wanted to see it after I featured Rapunzel and Lara wearing the hair circlet.)

Since it's a party, you definitely deserve a treat first. How about a piece of marble cake?

Do do you rather have French fries?

What about a healthy meal -- Thai curry with Basmati rice, chicken and vegetables?

Anyway, it's time to get close up and personal! What can you expect when you decide to visit my blog regularly? Cat photos -- in fact, photos of all kinds of animals. By the way, that's Joschi, our neighbors' cat who frequently comes over for cuddles and treats. He also loves to jump up to meet my hand -- which can be seen here.

Flower photos -- I love flowers.

Sunsets or sunrises -- I love to take photos of the sky moods.

Two of the words on the sidebar of my blog are Sharing and Teaching. Thus I often share photos of German traditions and customs as such Bleigießen (pouring lead), a German New Year's custom. Here's one of my lead pieces -- I see an iguana. Can you see it, too?

I also share photos of my hometown Munich. Here's one from December showing the Karlstor (Charles' Gate).

You will see photos of the stuff I cook and bake. Here is a January treat --  delicious cinnamon rolls.

I will talk about my love of Disney. Frozen is my new love -- here's Elsa.

My Glen Keane girls -- Rapunzel, Pocahontas and Arielle.

You will hear about the fun products I occasionally discover -- like this Märchen Joghurt (fairy-tale yoghurt).

What else will you read about? Books I love -- here's the German version of Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase (a five-star rating from me).

Movies I watch.

Music I listen to.

Video games I play -- here you can see Lara Croft from Tomb Raider.

I will show you parts of my hometown which you can't find in the average travel guide. Here are shelves with the purple Milka cow at Milka Welt (Milka World) in Munich. Just in case you haven't heard it before -- Milka is one of the best known chocolate brands in Germany.

As I take my camera with me all the time, I often take photos of everything which strikes my fancy. Here's the ceiling of the underground passage at Karlsplatz (Charles' Square).

Since Inspiring is another word to describe my blog's purpose, I hope I can inspire to take your camera with you often, too. You might find beauty where you least expect it -- here's a shot of a staircase in Munich's city center.

Connecting is another big goal -- I really enjoy Swapping Howdies with you. Hence the name of my blog -- just in case you wondered. You are also welcome to write an email. My email address is 

swappinghowdies@yahoo.de

Creating is dear to my heart. I love to create with my hands -- for example cards, pendants or this FIMO (modeling clay) pendant showing Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University. I also love to create digitally. You can see some of my stuff here and here. If you want to join a nice community of people who love digital art, be sure to check out We Love Digital Art. Of course, you can also see my new digital creations on this blog.

Talking of monsters reminds me that I love Halloween. I was delighted to find a couple of Halloween products in stores last year.

Talking of Halloween reminds me that I like owls -- and nice notebooks.

You will often see photos taken in the garden -- here's one of the glorious fall photos.

I really like this winter cherry -- so delicate! 

You will hear about my favorite things -- like the Summer Scoop candle of Yankee Candle which was a birthday treat last summer. Since it's pink, I want to link it to Beverly's Pink Saturday.

I hope I have electrified you -- it would be lovely to welcome you back and swap howdies with you. I certainly appreciate if you chose to follow my blog.

Hey, what about a door prize?

Joschi is right -- I definitely want to offer a door prize! You could win the pattern to make a seated angel.

• Please leave a comment below and let me know that you are interested in winning the pattern -- I am looking forward to hearing from you and will try to answer all comments either by email or by commenting on your blog. One entry per person even if you have more than one blog. Please make sure that I can contact you either by email or by accessing your blog.

• The final day for leaving a comment is February 14th -- the winner (to be found with the help of a random number generator) will be announced and informed on February 15th.

Maybe you can soon put together this beautiful angel with the help of detailled instructions.

I haven't gotten around to make the angel and rather pass on the instructions so that it will be created and bring joy to someone!

Good luck and please come back to swap howdies!