Good Morning, Vienna!

The view from my bed this morning looks pretty nice I think.

Here we are

Not one of those times when we leave Heathrow at lunchtime and arrive the other side of the ocean in time for tea, but one where we went the other way and “lost” an hour, wasted another one waiting for the luggage to arrive on the carousel (not just ours, but the whole plane load) which meant that a two hour flight took the whole day.

The reflection on the baggage hall wall is a clue to the grand European capital in which we’ve decided to spend the weekend.

The view from our window is magnificent and those of you who’ve been to Vienna will recognise the Stefansdom immediately.  Our hotel describes itself as an “arthotel” , very modern and rather comfortable.

So, even though we caught the 11am flight this morning, by the time we’d got to the hotel and sorted ourselves out, it was getting dark.  The streets were rather busy and still lavishly decorated which made walking through them a delight.

The Graben is a pedestrian thoroughfare in the grandest European style and we very much enjoyed taking in the atmosphere.  The small, individual shop fronts, some of which remain from the 19th century, are in stark contrast to so many of our city streets with their bland, international corporate buildings.

On this cold early evening, the shop windows glittered and beckoned us in.

However, bearing in mind that we had a reservation for dinner and we have a couple more days to spend lingering in these places, we stepped out and reacquainted ourselves with the layout of the city centre, getting our bearings around the Hofburg and thinking about where we’d like to go tomorrow.  It’s fifteen years since we were here, we think, so our memories are a little patchy.

Though the weather forecast had predicted mild temperatures, it was such a chill wind that blew my Hero’s cap right off and led me into a fine Viennese hat shop to look for some practical headgear to keep my ears warm!  Since I’m unlikely to bump into anyone I know here, I was happy to prioritise comfort before style (!) but the “neck ear warmers” I chose are practical and if not quite elegant, are respectable and very effective!

Fortunately it wasn’t far to the restaurant Zum Weissen Rauchfangkehrer (White Chimney Sweep – read the story here) and there was to be found the most delicious supper – the best way of warming us through again!

And even though we are not in Salzburg, the Nockerl  proved too good to miss. No Kaiserschmarrn on the menu here, so we’ll have to look a little further for that old favourite.

Not a bad quest for the next couple of days, wouldn’t you say?  I suspect we might see a few other interesting things along the way, too

Happy New Year!

Celebrating 2013 and someone's 28th birthday with a little jaunt. The big mystery is, how can he be 28 when I am only 34?

(In my dreams)

December Daily done

I love to make a December Daily journal each year.  Even more than that, I love to look back over those I’ve made in previous years which contain a wealth of memories, family traditions and stories.  But of course, it’s the busiest month of the year too and I frequently find myself completely behind with it all and need to catch up from time to time.

This year, in particular, I was never up to speed with it all.

Usually, I find a pack of Christmas paper I like and buy one or two bits and pieces which go with it.  I’ve got a stack of ribbon and other shiny things and I create my own journal as I go along.  I read the blog and admire the work of Ali Edwards, so when I saw she was having some input to a 25 Days online workshop via Studio Calico, I thought I’d sign up and see what I could learn from her.

Enrolling for that class opened up the chance to buy a December Daily kit, too, and though I felt it was an expensive option, I weighed up the cost of buying all those bits and pieces and went for it.  If I say the photo shows what was left over, then you’ll guess, there was quite a bit in that kit!  Not only did it contain printed papers, rubber stamps and all the usual embellishments, there were also many files online to download, including cut files for the Silhouette.  Whilst most of it was well coordinated and worked well together, there were some anomalies and a couple of really strange inclusions, so I felt no pressure to use every bit of it.  The other downside was that none of this was available until December 1st.

When we were in Philadelphia.

As a result, I didn’t even begin until the 6th December and ever since then, I’ve been days and days behind.  Still, once I did get going on it, I found it all came together fairly easily. even if I do have to spend ages fiddling about with each page arrangement until I’m happy.

Actually, what took most time was looking through the wealth of goodies I had to choose from, deciding what I wanted to use where and what I wanted to save for another day.  The online “class” wasn’t really anything of the sort but a mere series of pdfs with ideas from a group of people to show how they used the papers and ephemera in their December Daily journals – and the Ali Edwards input which had attracted me in the first place was minimal.  Still, it was interesting to see how differently people interpreted the brief and used the components.  Being me, I couldn’t simply “lift” their ideas but had to do my own thing (though of course, at times I found I liked what I saw there and did something rather similar).

I liked many of the items included in the kit and was pleased to try out for myself some of the things I see mentioned from time to time.  I now see why people use their sewing machine to fix Thickers letters on their pages – because the adhesive on them is so poor they fall straight off the page!  They do look good, though.

I especially like the sheet of little glossy dots, three of which can be seen on the page above.  I’ve no idea what they are but I’d look for them again. Enamel dots!

Normally with a December Daily journal, the challenge is to find a set of numbers with enough ones and twos to cover the whole month.  Because this set had been put together with the express purpose of creating such a book, this was no problem at all – in fact, as you can see, there was a wealth of choices, especially for the big day!

My favourite was the set of little wood veneer tree shapes and I’ll look out for those again.  I can’t be alone in liking those, because I see they’re out of stock in most places but they will surely return.

Am I pleased with the end result?  Well, yes I am.  Was it worth the price of the kit and the class?  Hmmm… 

Five years ago, I signed up for Shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas.  It’s a once and for ever enrolment and each day in December, Shimelle delivers a set of prompts and ideas to my email inbox every day.  I don’t have to go to a website, log in or do anything else…it’s just there.  Because I’ve followed her prompts and suggestions for five years, I felt I was getting a little stale and needed a new challenge.  But guess what I’ll be doing next December?  Ultimately, I felt that this year’s December Daily journal has been very product driven.  Each page has got way more “stuff” on it than I’d usually include and though I’ve tried to use it carefully, it’s not really my style.  Actually, there’s more journalling than it appears in the photographs because I’ve hidden most of it behind flaps and in pockets.  But I prefer my pages to be more than a single photograph and an abundance of “stuff”, so next year, I’ll be back to my usual story telling style with a bit of this and that to adorn the content rather than vice versa.

But oh my, have I got a collection of resources on which to draw when next December comes around!

Sunshine

For the first time in a while, we can see shadows on the wall this morning.

I know the weather gives us plenty to talk about, but really, we have so missed the sunshine in the last few weeks that the sight of a bit of blue sky this morning is cause for celebration.  I just had to go outside and breathe in the fresh air and feel thankful not to be dodging raindrops.

These late December days are a time to savour.  No work to do, a few bits and pieces to do around the house to prepare for the arrival of our friends who will celebrate the New Year with us but generally, time for ourselves.  How selfish is that?

For me, it’s a time to fiddle about in the studio.  Maybe I’ll finish my December Daily journal today?  Maybe I’ll begin to build a new travel journal for later in the week (!)  Or, maybe I’ll just settle down with my Kindle and do not very much at all.  We have two small home made shepherd’s pies defrosting so there’s no cooking to be done and the Christmas leftovers were dealt with yesterday, too.

 

So, what’s lurking in the shadows, drawing my attention and challenging my willpower?