i have just looked back and wondered why i haven't posted in such a long time. my last post is from april 24th and that explains it somewhat i think (at least to me): on april 24th we had the first run of presidental elections here in austria, which would not normally have caused such a long absence from my blog - or have anything to do with it in general because i want to keep my blog a cosy place full of warm and snuggly things and politics just don't have anything to do here... i will make an exception for now.
there was no definite result on april 24th and there was a run-off ballot scheduled for may 22nd. when it comes to politics i often say things like: "i don't care." or "i'm not interested." but between april 24th and may 22nd i realised that my saying that is really just a mode of self defence against the frustration about and fear of the state of things in our... well... state. i did care and was interested - a lot and without being concious of it at first and without being able to do anything about it really once i was concious of it, i spent the four weeks between the polls in general nervousness. i felt like i was sitting on a hairbrush... and it was really hard to sit down and concentrate on anything. it's silly, i know, especially since there was nothing for me to do other than go and make my cross in the little circle next to the name i thought was the right one but i really just wanted it to be over for now. and when the results where officially announced i literally felt the hairbrush disintegrating under my bum... phew...

we have an inn close by that recently refurbished and is now a combination of an inn and an antique store/yard sale. i bought the above sofa there in the middle of march and payed for it with the money i had gotten from my mum for an ordered pair of socks only the day before. it was love at first sight: i was on my way to pick up T from kindergarten, saw it standing on the sidewalk and thought i should buy it instantly but then i would have been late. so i decided to buy it should it still be available on our way back. it was still available and when i paid it i told the owner i would come back in the afernoon to pick it up. then i called my mother to ask her help (and car - because we, both my husband and i, don't drive) for getting it home. it only then occured to me that i should call my husband and tell him that i had just bought a sofa - haha!
we all love it and refer to it as the "Kuschelsofa" (= cuddle sofa) which comes from "Schlapps und Schlumbo" which is a cd my kids - especially R - love to listen to. Schlapps (she) and Schlumbo (he) are felt slippers who live in a skyblue house with a bright red chimney and they sleep on their Kuschelsofa. the story starts with them having an argument about Schlumbo's foot being on Schlapps's side of the sofa which results in them thinking their sofa is too small and they have to go in search of Vielbesser Land (= much better land) to buy a bigger, wider, more beautiful and generally much better one. they set off and meet lots of other creatures in lots of other lands - a woodpecker in the wood land, a mouse in the field land, a carp in the water land, a cactus in the dessert land, and many more. they all have their perfect sofas but none of them suit the felt slipper couple. they walk all the way round the mountain and don't find Vielbesser Land until they end up at their own house again and realise they always had the best sofa of them all from the start. and they don't have arguments about who has how much room any more...
it's an adorable story and i think every family needs their own Kuschelsofa. (most of them do anyway i think - they just might not call it that...)

then i bought this lovely chest of drawers a little while back. there, too, was an instant click but i didn't buy it right away. i walked past it a couple of times with a little sigh, thinking i can't keep buying furniture just because it's there and i like it. but then i couldn't resist any longer and got it anyway. it lives in our bedroom for the present and i think might also end up there when we move to our new place.
there is good news on that front: it will be ready to move into not at the end of november as we were told at first but at the end of september already. we will have enough time now during the next couple of months to get rid of stuff and to start packing up and then we will have time to unpack and settle in and make everything comfortable in time for christmas.
and now back to the yard sale inn:

they sell lots and lots of dishes of all shapes and sizes and it's mostly single pieces. the above plate was the first one i bought. the second and third i got for my mum's birthday in the middle of may. (one of those is actually a platter of about half a meter in diameter that you would use to serve a selection of cakes or cold meats and cheese or something. i forgot to take pictures of them though. i'll think of it next time i'm at my mum's i hope.)
and then all went crazy:



i love the above three especially. they are all handpainted and of different size. the top one is great for dinner, the middle one for breakfast and the third one for supper (usually on the sofa when the kids are in bed already).


and these two are just so funky and colourful and busy. i love how they are so similar but different. they are great for cake.
oh... and then i bought a beautiful wooden bowl that we use when we watch a movie and have crisps and this old "Gmundner" bowl which has great size and shape for pasta, salad or soup. (Gmunden is a city in Upper Austria that is famous for its tableware.)

(do you like my little girl's artwork on the wall...?)

i know this may seem a little bonkers to some people but to me selecting a dish to eat from or a cup or glass to drink from adds to my comfort like choosing the clothes i want to wear... eating or drinking from a piece of tableware that i like particularly makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable just as wearing nice and comfortable clothes makes it more enjoyable to leave the house (or wear clothes in general)...
i can't believe it's june already... it's basically summer and there are only four! more weeks of school (which is only great news when you think with the brain of a student - for a teacher it means rapidly increasing stress levels) and six more of kindergarten.
i was a little late in planting some nasturtiums this year - at least i did plant some because last year i didn't plant anything unless you want to call moving little strawberry plants into a bigger pot planting...

T and R helped shoveling soil into pots back in april. we re-potted little strawberries this year too and T placed the nasturtium seeds, covered and watered them. at first i thought they wouldn't grow at all because nothing happened for such a long time but they are growing well now:

(i have to dead-head the daisy in the back there.)
i also have some lovely (gardencenter bought) million bells. the big orange, yellow and white one was a gift from my wonderful mum. when they didn't have orange ones in the small pots she insisted on getting me the huge one that had orange flowers in abundance... i love my mum...
the pink one with the yellow centers has at least tripled in size already - it will probably grow as big as the orange one - and for the blue pot i didn't have a place to hang so the slugs got to it and munched away. million bells seem to be very tasty...



my pink clematis is flowering like crazy with many more to come. (it's actually not mine but the garden's but i like to say mine because i love it so much.) next spring i'm going to plant one of those in our new garden.


the kids rediscovered their old toddler slide which has not been really interesting to them at all for months now. T is almost as long as the slide but his new game is to jump down onto the old mattress from our bed that we have outside. it's worn out and dirty by now but still great for jumping on and it doesn't matter when the kids throw sand on it or run over it with their shoes on. and when we want to lounge in the sun i just spread a big picnic blanket over it and it's great.

(don't worry - for the jumping activity i moved the slide closer to the mattress...)

yesterday we saw two of these large garden snails. apparently they found each other during the night:

T spotted them when we went outside in the late morning today and i was glad he didn't ask anything about them smooching each other like that... not that i have a problem explaining that sort of thing to him - i was glad i didn't have to anyway... i hope they didn't think me rude for taking photos of them although they didn't seem to notice anything besides themselves and each other... hihihi!

i like snails. i don't care much for slugs but snails are awesome... even though they too eat things a gardener might not be that happy about - good thing i'm not really a gardener then, right?
i'll be back soon. i have lots of crochet and sock knitting to show you and the first photos of our new - though unfinished - appartment.
until then: have a great time!