our first family blog post in what seems like ages and it's regarding things we want. nice, right?
seriously though, the holidays are approaching at rapid speed and i'm feeling completely overwhelmed by basically all of it. except for the fact that we're obviously just stoked to get to spend christmas with our american family this year. :)
so while i'm thinking of it, this will be a random quick post about wishlists. just in case any of you feel the need to get things for the girls.
we need absolutely nothing! so mainly we'd like contributions to causes we care about. i'll try and add a few links later tonight if i manage to stay up past the kid's bedtime.
so if you'd like to have things for them to unwrap, please keep it small (i foresee us having a hard time staying within luggage limits as it is) and preferably somewhat in line with our crazy hippie ideals, which i know you're aware off at this point. ;)
just a gentle reminder, etsy is a fantastic source for beautiful and thoughtful gifts for the whole family. support local artists!
joon has recently shown a LOT of interest in schleich animal toys. they're more expensive than other animal miniatures i've seen, but they're so beautifully made and feel so good in a child's hands i can see she clearly prefers them over others. she especially loves horses, elephants, rhinos, hippos, dinos and monkeys and doesn't have any yet, so no worries about her having doubles. she's also very much into just about anything crafty. so age appropriate craft tools would be nice. however, she can't do fingerpaints or bathtub paints because of her excema.
mika is drowning in joon's toys and clothes and really doesn't need anything other than a carseat and good shoes, both of which we kinda have to "try on" in person. however, she loves anything that makes music. so maybe wellmade african or asian handdrums or other small childfriendly instruments would be something for her.
so. that's that. your company and lots of yummy food is all the four of us need to make this christmas wondeful!
in other news, mika got her first tooth, took her first unassisted steps, joon pooped in the toilet and dave got an official certificate stating his german language skills as excellent all within the past few days. hooray! i'm strangely exhausted and would like to spend a few days in bed and continue to accomplish nothing worthy mentioning here. no, i'm not pregnant. and won't be any time soon. it must be winter hibernation mode kicking in....
much love all around and we'll see y'all very soon!
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
beautiful garden, talented artist, fresh fruit, refashioned clothing...
beautiful garden, talented artist, fresh fruit, refashioned clothing
or if you prefer to look at everything all together... joontoon's photostream
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
the pledge
it's june 1st, a day i've been mentally preparing for the past couple of weeks. the reason today is special? it marks the first day of a 2-month long experiment for me.
i've decided to take the wardrobe refashion pledge.
the official rules as stated on the website are as follows...
1. No buying new! (handmade is excepted; So this allows for Etsy purchases etc!!) All clothing must be Recycled, Renovated, Preloved or Thrifted, or Handmade only for the term. Employment related and special needs clothing (ie sports, school), shoes and undies are excepted from the rules, although you are encouraged to have a go at making these.
2. In extreme circumstances, maybe a special event, or the worlds greatest and most amazing never to be repeated sale that you simply can not pass up, you may use the Get out of Refashionista Jail Free card. You are able to use this card once during the 2 month part of your contract; ie 1 for 2 months, 2 for 4 months etc. Of course you need to fess up on the blog and display the button!
3. You must post on the blog at least once a week to let the community know what you've been up to. This will not only give you brag points, but inspire and encorouge others! Of course you need to display the button on your blog and have copied the pledge in at least one post, and provide a link to your pledge under the button.
4. You need to be honest and admit when you've fallen off the Refashionista Wagon! Go directly to Refashionista Jail, do not pass GO and do not collect $200! Apply for parole once there.
refashioning has long been something of interest to me and i've collected several big moving boxes full of pre-loved (or not so loved) clothing in the past few years hoping that i'd one day put new life into these items and make them wearable again. once i really got into sewing though i unfortunately also really got into buying fancy new fabrics and so i created new items from scratch using new materials and those boxes have remained more or less untouched.
doing lots of thinking about consumer culture lately and having lots of interesting conversations with my awesomely driven creative and independent thinking husband i realize that i must try as best as i can to make use of the resources we have and that unfortunately the only way to change consumer culture is to avoid being a consumer of mass production whenever possible. even if that means being inconvenienced at times. so there are lots of "thinking outside the box" challenges ahead of me and i'm very much looking forward to facing them.
in addition of taking the pledge for clothing i've also promised myself that we as a family will take the spirit of no buying new! re-use! and less is more! to all aspects of life. over the next two months we will only purchase things we actually truely need or which will help enable us need less (i.e. we just spent 100 bucks on a bycicle cart to pull around the children in and will need to purchase new tires and small bits to get our bikes in running order so that we will have fewer reasons to use a car) and when we will try to purchase used items whenever possible.
i will post on the wardrobe refashion blog at least once a week about the wardrobe part of our experiment. if we make other cool discoveries or come up with cool anti-mass-consumption stuff i'll most likely post about it on our family blog.
so now here's the official part...
The Pledge
i've decided to take the wardrobe refashion pledge.
the official rules as stated on the website are as follows...
1. No buying new! (handmade is excepted; So this allows for Etsy purchases etc!!) All clothing must be Recycled, Renovated, Preloved or Thrifted, or Handmade only for the term. Employment related and special needs clothing (ie sports, school), shoes and undies are excepted from the rules, although you are encouraged to have a go at making these.
2. In extreme circumstances, maybe a special event, or the worlds greatest and most amazing never to be repeated sale that you simply can not pass up, you may use the Get out of Refashionista Jail Free card. You are able to use this card once during the 2 month part of your contract; ie 1 for 2 months, 2 for 4 months etc. Of course you need to fess up on the blog and display the button!
3. You must post on the blog at least once a week to let the community know what you've been up to. This will not only give you brag points, but inspire and encorouge others! Of course you need to display the button on your blog and have copied the pledge in at least one post, and provide a link to your pledge under the button.
4. You need to be honest and admit when you've fallen off the Refashionista Wagon! Go directly to Refashionista Jail, do not pass GO and do not collect $200! Apply for parole once there.
refashioning has long been something of interest to me and i've collected several big moving boxes full of pre-loved (or not so loved) clothing in the past few years hoping that i'd one day put new life into these items and make them wearable again. once i really got into sewing though i unfortunately also really got into buying fancy new fabrics and so i created new items from scratch using new materials and those boxes have remained more or less untouched.
doing lots of thinking about consumer culture lately and having lots of interesting conversations with my awesomely driven creative and independent thinking husband i realize that i must try as best as i can to make use of the resources we have and that unfortunately the only way to change consumer culture is to avoid being a consumer of mass production whenever possible. even if that means being inconvenienced at times. so there are lots of "thinking outside the box" challenges ahead of me and i'm very much looking forward to facing them.
in addition of taking the pledge for clothing i've also promised myself that we as a family will take the spirit of no buying new! re-use! and less is more! to all aspects of life. over the next two months we will only purchase things we actually truely need or which will help enable us need less (i.e. we just spent 100 bucks on a bycicle cart to pull around the children in and will need to purchase new tires and small bits to get our bikes in running order so that we will have fewer reasons to use a car) and when we will try to purchase used items whenever possible.
i will post on the wardrobe refashion blog at least once a week about the wardrobe part of our experiment. if we make other cool discoveries or come up with cool anti-mass-consumption stuff i'll most likely post about it on our family blog.
so now here's the official part...
I, Karoline Stephens, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed xxx.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
building, styling, riding, tarzaning, kidwearing, NIPing, picking
lots of new pictures for the loving grandparents and all others who care to keep up with our currently kinda strange life here. (hoping the upload will work. internet at this house is a bit wonky.)
as you may know we're spending a few weeks at my mom's house. we've been helping my sister move (bleh!), reorganizing two rooms in that old house and spending lots of time outside.
the girls are doing really well, they're extremely happy to be in such a wonderful place with lots of attention from family members. joon is in heaven getting to go outside whenever she feels like it and playing with all the random odds and ends she gets to discover around here. her days are filled with exploring and she's obsessed with watching "poppins" every night before bed and most mornings before starting her busy day.
today we finally took a much needed break from working on the house and went on a long hike in the woods. walking to the woods from here takes about three minutes so we'll be doing lots more hiking in the next weeks. joon loved the big playground and met a two-and-a-half-year old boy named julian who was the perfect size for her to ride the seesaw-carousel with. his dad basically looked like dave's twin, they're also german-english bilingual AND the kid attends the waldkindergarten we're hoping to send our girls to. needless to say we were pretty stoked to meet these guys and silly shy german me did not get their phone number. i regret that now but am guessing we'll run into them again some time soon.
after her nap joon got to pick this year's first tomato. yum. our garden is doing surprisingly well considering we've been really slacking at keeping it in good shape. living here has certainly helped make it easier for us to take care of it though and in another week or so we should be drowning in tomatoes.
so. off to go back outside. i'm hoping all our pictures will upload despite the annoyingly slow internet connection here.
as always though, a little tease...
as you may know we're spending a few weeks at my mom's house. we've been helping my sister move (bleh!), reorganizing two rooms in that old house and spending lots of time outside.
the girls are doing really well, they're extremely happy to be in such a wonderful place with lots of attention from family members. joon is in heaven getting to go outside whenever she feels like it and playing with all the random odds and ends she gets to discover around here. her days are filled with exploring and she's obsessed with watching "poppins" every night before bed and most mornings before starting her busy day.
today we finally took a much needed break from working on the house and went on a long hike in the woods. walking to the woods from here takes about three minutes so we'll be doing lots more hiking in the next weeks. joon loved the big playground and met a two-and-a-half-year old boy named julian who was the perfect size for her to ride the seesaw-carousel with. his dad basically looked like dave's twin, they're also german-english bilingual AND the kid attends the waldkindergarten we're hoping to send our girls to. needless to say we were pretty stoked to meet these guys and silly shy german me did not get their phone number. i regret that now but am guessing we'll run into them again some time soon.
after her nap joon got to pick this year's first tomato. yum. our garden is doing surprisingly well considering we've been really slacking at keeping it in good shape. living here has certainly helped make it easier for us to take care of it though and in another week or so we should be drowning in tomatoes.
so. off to go back outside. i'm hoping all our pictures will upload despite the annoyingly slow internet connection here.
as always though, a little tease...
Friday, June 12, 2009
annalie's birthday
joon's very best friend and frequent partner in crime, annalie, turned two yesterday!
we went over to the cho's house in the afternoon for lots of fun play, gift giving, extremely delicious cake and brownies, a little forest adventure and then finally very delayed but tasty pizza.
we got back home at nine thirty and were all tired but happy and had the best night sleep we've had in a loooooong time.
yay! for birthdays!! we should do more of those. wait. there's another one coming up only three days from now. how convenient. ;)
so. as always, here are lots of pictures to prove it all. and a few more added in the "crafty stuff" and "random june pictures" sets.
we went over to the cho's house in the afternoon for lots of fun play, gift giving, extremely delicious cake and brownies, a little forest adventure and then finally very delayed but tasty pizza.
we got back home at nine thirty and were all tired but happy and had the best night sleep we've had in a loooooong time.
yay! for birthdays!! we should do more of those. wait. there's another one coming up only three days from now. how convenient. ;)
so. as always, here are lots of pictures to prove it all. and a few more added in the "crafty stuff" and "random june pictures" sets.
Monday, June 8, 2009
june
the kid is about to turn two and i'm kina freaking out over it. trying not to let it surface too much but still... my baby is totally not a baby anymore. of course that's very exciting, but i'd be lying if i didn't admit to my heart breaking a little as well.
good thing we've got a super cuddly full-on baby around still! :)
soooo... we've got some new pictures to share with you on my flickr .
important note regarding pictures, there are a few new snapshots which i've decided to keep private. you CAN view them, if you create a flickr account and add me as friend or family and i add you in return. chances are i'll be adding more pictures on that private setting in the future, so if you actually know and love us in real life and aren't just some creepy internet lurker you now know what to do. ;)
lovelovelove
good thing we've got a super cuddly full-on baby around still! :)
soooo... we've got some new pictures to share with you on my flickr .
important note regarding pictures, there are a few new snapshots which i've decided to keep private. you CAN view them, if you create a flickr account and add me as friend or family and i add you in return. chances are i'll be adding more pictures on that private setting in the future, so if you actually know and love us in real life and aren't just some creepy internet lurker you now know what to do. ;)
lovelovelove
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
farm fun
lots of pictures from yesterday on flickr.
and one little preview...
yes, we have a fancy new camera. and yes, we have been taking lots of nice pictures lately. we've just honestly been too busy living life to upload them.
i promise, i will try to get that done tonight when the kids are asleep. thank you for your patience. :)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Eleanor Mika
Hurra! Hurra! Mika ist da!
Eleanor Mika was born at home on Sunday morning at 5:32am. She's 19.7" (50cm) long when stretched out from her regular ball shape and weighed in 7lbs 6oz (3350 gram).
She was welcomed by Mama, Papa, Oma, Gramma, Maria, Midwife Alexa and soon after showered with love and affection by proud big sister Joon who slept through the three short hours of labor and birth.
Everyone is doing beautifully, we're fully enjoying our "Babymoon" at home surrounded by family. Mika is very healthy, a great nurser and very content, Joon is over the moon with joy over Baby "Me-Nah" and adjusting to her new role as big sister incredibly well.
We'll be back with more pictures and details soon. Much love to everyone!
Eleanor Mika was born at home on Sunday morning at 5:32am. She's 19.7" (50cm) long when stretched out from her regular ball shape and weighed in 7lbs 6oz (3350 gram).
She was welcomed by Mama, Papa, Oma, Gramma, Maria, Midwife Alexa and soon after showered with love and affection by proud big sister Joon who slept through the three short hours of labor and birth.
Everyone is doing beautifully, we're fully enjoying our "Babymoon" at home surrounded by family. Mika is very healthy, a great nurser and very content, Joon is over the moon with joy over Baby "Me-Nah" and adjusting to her new role as big sister incredibly well.
We'll be back with more pictures and details soon. Much love to everyone!
Friday, December 26, 2008
christmas outing to the zoo
after last night's incredibly yummy christmas dinner and finally a good long night of sleep we decided that it was time for some outdoor fun for those of us no longer feeling completely crappy from the cold.
dave, maria, joon and i went to our free local little zoo which has a great playground for joon to climb around on. we bundled up, dug out our shades, bought some animal food and hot chocolate at the little zoo kiosk and off we went. it was freezing cold but the fresh air and bright sun felt amazing!
first we went to feed the goats and sheep which joon still prefers to watch from a safe distance and then joon and maria climbed up and down the hills and joon slid down the frozen mud slides.
our contend and nicely worn out kid passed out two minutes into our drive home and is now happily napping by an open window while dave is recording bass tracks and maria and i are warming up with yummy spice tea and honey sandwiches.
i've got a few minutes of sewing to do and then we'll all take hot showers before heading back over to my grandparent's house where we're expecting even more family for coffee and cake, more gift exchanging and many more hours of sitting together chit chatting, eating treats, drinking wine (or tea in my case), possibly playing some games and watching joon be a little goofball.
tomorrow we're all going to "erfahrungsfeld der sinne" (experience field of the senses) which hanne got tickets for the whole family for. i'm guessing we'll be a group of about 15 people or so. four generations. fun, fun, fun.
dave, joon and i went there in august with our friends corey and dylan and had a great time and i'm really looking forward to taking joon back there now that she's a little older and probably even more interested in all the sights and sounds and experiments. more on that tomorrow though...
for now, here are looooooots of pics of today's outing!
dave, maria, joon and i went to our free local little zoo which has a great playground for joon to climb around on. we bundled up, dug out our shades, bought some animal food and hot chocolate at the little zoo kiosk and off we went. it was freezing cold but the fresh air and bright sun felt amazing!
first we went to feed the goats and sheep which joon still prefers to watch from a safe distance and then joon and maria climbed up and down the hills and joon slid down the frozen mud slides.
our contend and nicely worn out kid passed out two minutes into our drive home and is now happily napping by an open window while dave is recording bass tracks and maria and i are warming up with yummy spice tea and honey sandwiches.
i've got a few minutes of sewing to do and then we'll all take hot showers before heading back over to my grandparent's house where we're expecting even more family for coffee and cake, more gift exchanging and many more hours of sitting together chit chatting, eating treats, drinking wine (or tea in my case), possibly playing some games and watching joon be a little goofball.
tomorrow we're all going to "erfahrungsfeld der sinne" (experience field of the senses) which hanne got tickets for the whole family for. i'm guessing we'll be a group of about 15 people or so. four generations. fun, fun, fun.
dave, joon and i went there in august with our friends corey and dylan and had a great time and i'm really looking forward to taking joon back there now that she's a little older and probably even more interested in all the sights and sounds and experiments. more on that tomorrow though...
for now, here are looooooots of pics of today's outing!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
merry christmas
here are the first couple of pictures of joon's first christmas in germany. since we do a completely candlelit celebration on christmas eve the light was not very picture friendly. we did take some video which will be up on joontoob later and martin took more pictures which i'm hoping to upload to my computer in a little while.
we had a really lovely evening and joon had a great time and is enjoying all her wonderful presents. now we're all awfully sick, the cold that joon brought home last week has finally really hit everyone. so i'll get back to pampering my sick mother and sister for now but will be back with more news later today.
missing you all and hoping you're having a wonderful holiday! love, love, love
joon trying out her new chair. she loves it.
christmas morning trying to squeeze herself and her new doll into the little bed box the doll came in.
we had a really lovely evening and joon had a great time and is enjoying all her wonderful presents. now we're all awfully sick, the cold that joon brought home last week has finally really hit everyone. so i'll get back to pampering my sick mother and sister for now but will be back with more news later today.
missing you all and hoping you're having a wonderful holiday! love, love, love
joon trying out her new chair. she loves it.
christmas morning trying to squeeze herself and her new doll into the little bed box the doll came in.
Monday, December 15, 2008
christmas market fun
so yesterday was the third sunday of advent and we finally finally FINALLY got a chance to hang out with the cho family.
we met up at the christmas market (we were terribly late and i'm so sorry about that) where the girls first spent a good bit of time watching a little train do it's rounds. that gave the non-pregnant grown ups some time to enjoy their first gluehwein and chit chat.
we then managed to squeeze our way though the crowd. christmas markets on late sunday afternoons are completely crazy just in case you didn't know. i kept thinking, i could just yell "my water just broke!!" and we'd be out of there in no time, but i didn't wanna mess with labor karma so we just stuck in out with the rest of the half german half american crowd.
on our way over to the ferris wheel i saw three big african-american guys and one of them was carrying a baby in a brightly colored baby wrap!! hot, hot, hot! sorry, i got way excited over this guy and just had to tell you about it. :D
so as it got dark (around 4 o'clock these days) we waited to get on the gigantic ferris wheel which gave us a great view of wiesbaden at night and a slight bit of nausea.
afterwards we decided it was time for a stout and sandwich break at the irish pub where the girls quickly got on the stage already prepared for karaoke night. the first wave of dressed up G.I.'s and their "oh my god, prom night is such fun!"-looking german girl friends caused us to rush out of there very quickly after two pints (well, one yucky mom beer for me).
we did some more christmas market browsing, drooled over really pretty wooden toys and instruments for kids, walked the chos to their bus, back to the market for cotton candy and roasted almonds and then the bus took the happy, content and tired stephens family home.
great day! :)
we met up at the christmas market (we were terribly late and i'm so sorry about that) where the girls first spent a good bit of time watching a little train do it's rounds. that gave the non-pregnant grown ups some time to enjoy their first gluehwein and chit chat.
we then managed to squeeze our way though the crowd. christmas markets on late sunday afternoons are completely crazy just in case you didn't know. i kept thinking, i could just yell "my water just broke!!" and we'd be out of there in no time, but i didn't wanna mess with labor karma so we just stuck in out with the rest of the half german half american crowd.
on our way over to the ferris wheel i saw three big african-american guys and one of them was carrying a baby in a brightly colored baby wrap!! hot, hot, hot! sorry, i got way excited over this guy and just had to tell you about it. :D
so as it got dark (around 4 o'clock these days) we waited to get on the gigantic ferris wheel which gave us a great view of wiesbaden at night and a slight bit of nausea.
afterwards we decided it was time for a stout and sandwich break at the irish pub where the girls quickly got on the stage already prepared for karaoke night. the first wave of dressed up G.I.'s and their "oh my god, prom night is such fun!"-looking german girl friends caused us to rush out of there very quickly after two pints (well, one yucky mom beer for me).
we did some more christmas market browsing, drooled over really pretty wooden toys and instruments for kids, walked the chos to their bus, back to the market for cotton candy and roasted almonds and then the bus took the happy, content and tired stephens family home.
great day! :)
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