T sTands for This and That again

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend was good! First of all I would like to wish all friends celebrating Hanukkah  a happy and blessed week:

For Sandie's vintage/shabby chic theme at Tag Tuesday I  cobbled together 2 smallish tags. I found lots of pre-cut pieces in my Christmas box which was a great help in getting the tags and cards for friends and neighbours done on time, even though I only started at the last minute:

These are the cards I made. It's too late to send them anywhere but okay for those who live here where I can deliver by hand. My Christmas box is now empty:

On Saturday I went for my birthday breakfast with Nathalie and Nelya and we enjoyed the breakfast buffet at  Cafe Schuster here in Kaiserswerth. Lots of drinks - tea, coffee, juice - in the following pics, so they are suitable for Elizabeth's T sTands for Tuesday link party. We were able to help ourselves from a wide selection of cheeses, salads, sliced meats, salads, fruit salads, cereals, juices, bread and rolls etc:

I loved the crispy, crusty rolls, and we could fill our bread baskets as often as we wanted:

My fave was fruit salad with Quark (soft cream cheese) and Müsli, and I managed several bowls of it:

Egg dishes were served at the table, I chose scrambled eggs but forgot about taking a pic til it was almost gone:

Anyway, we sat and breakfasted for well over 2 hours, and left the cafe feeling happy and full up!

This is the birthday/Christmas cake I made, filled with lots of fruits - raisins, cranberries, candied peel, dried plums and apricots and almonds. The fruits get boiled in red wine before they go into the cake mixture:

And here with the marzipan topping:

I got these fun Spekulatius (Ginger spice) cookies from Nelya, they are huge - about 8 inches high:

The morning of my birthday started off with a beautiful sky, with the moon visible:

 In the afternoon and evening I walked through town and along the Rhine:

A cruise ship floating by on the Rhine:

All in all a beautiful day, for which I am thankful.

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Weekend / Birthday post

Hi Everybody!

It's the last weekend before the big holidays, and I hope you all have some time to rest and relax and are not busy all the time with holiday preparations.

I have been busy making more chocolates, and I hope enough will survive the weekend to have their photos taken next week for T Day. Nathalie came over on Friday, she was busy packing and decorating a present for her Mum, and I cooked us chicken and veggies, Indian style, spicy and aromatic,  which we both enjoyed. Unfortunately it didn't survive long enough to have its photo taken - that's life!

Saturday is my birthday, on the winter solstice, and that's a good day, as from now the days will start to get longer again, leading us hopefully towards spring. When I was a kid it made me sad that my birthday was on the shortest day of the year, because I thought I got less birthday than other people! I am going to be celebrating with friends at Cafe Schuster, where they offer a wonderful breakfast buffet, and I won't have to do the work. I have more friends coming in the course of the afternoon, and I'm sure we will enjoy coffee and my homemade fruitcake and chocolates. 

I painted this huge piece (A2) some time last year to use up left-over paint at art group, and now I have managed to finish it with some simple, cut-out, geometric shapes in primary colours. I am linking to Yvonne's words and numbers theme at 

Art Journal Journey and to Paint Party Friday.

On Thursday evening I saw this lovely corner where St Swidbert is so well lit up:

Earlier in the day I went round and took photos of the festively decorated doors and windows in our little town, here are a few of them:

Rocking horses in the window for Elizabeth:

And these beautiful views greeted me when I got up Friday morning:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!