Preparing for the New Decoration

Hi all today I’m working on parts of our new decoration: Paper snowballs or puffy snowflakes. It’s quite easy to make. See here my little how-to:

1. step: Fold a 3-ply paper-napkin in half and then like a fan:

2. step: bundle in the middle with a fine string.

3.Step: cut a little from the “closed”part of the napkin:

4. Step: Spread up the two halves of the fan to a rosette

5. step: spread up the two layers of one half. Do it carefully to make sure the paper won’t burst.

6. step: Now the tricky opening of the different paper layers start. try to grasp each single layer and open it up.

the result of spreading the layers should look like this.

7. Step: Do the same with the second half and you will have a nice snowflake/snowball like looking shape

You can attach yarn or transparent plastic string around the inner middle of the ball and hand it where ever you want. I will make a bunch of them and hang them in our shop window. Redecoration for our new theme : “la vie en Rose” will start on Thursday, so stay tuned for more pics.

Sustainable System?!

Well, the weather outside is definitely autumn/winter-like. But inside our Beuteltiere-shop it looks like spring. Spring? yeah. You know, the time of the year you do cleaning. Cleaning your house from the winter-fuss, sweeping out the dust which had time to rest in the warmth during the cold period of the year. But for Beuteltiere it was time to do that cleaning NOW. We threw out a bunch of old catalogues, stationary etc.

We restructured our info-backup and are now using hanging file indexes, where not only the smallest pieces of paper fit in, no, the big buddies fit in there too. And our normal folders will stay well longer, we hope. They don’t like heavy stuff, they break easily that way. And there are plans here to clean the cellar as well… Mmh. We´ll see. But anyway: We feel relieved getting rid of the old stuff at least. So much space, so much clearance. May be I should start with that at home too? Ok, not too much ambition on one day. Stay well!

Brrr … first snow in Berlin

This morning…surprise, surprise…there was the first snow falling down. After some very grey days with a lot of rain unfortunately the bad weather didn’t spare us. It came even worse:  SNOW and an even more grey weather. Time for winter depressions!

(pics from Marsupialia)

Great Giftwrapping Technique – Furoshiki

Look what our neighbor Kathi from Cereals No. 29 is now doing for special christmas gifts in her shop: Furoshiki. Here a picture from mungo binkie which I found on flickr:

Isn´t it cute?

And that’s my first attempt to do one of my own…

Furoshiki is a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth that was used to transport smaller goods. The name’s meaning “bath spread”, leads to a former use of the fabric: bundle clothes while staying in public baths. Anyhow it´s really a fantastic way of substituting the use of plastic bags. It’s not only “green” to use it, it has definitely a great and representative look. Wouldn’ you also cut capers if you get a gift wrapped in a beautiful fabric like this?

For all who want to try it themselves. Check out this page: Furoshiki for more patterns and tutorials

Private Plates 3rd Edition – The Recipes

Happy Monday to you all! Berlin is soaked wet to describe the actual weather situation. But thinking about the dinner last Thursday keeps me still smiling. And the courses we had would warm me now too. For those who want to try the recipes: here they are!

Starter: red cabbage salad with pomegranate seeds and pecan nuts

Just follow the links and you can download the instructions in german or english. Or see our pattern, tutorials and recipes page to get it from there.

Main course: veggie Tajine with Curcuma bulgur and yoghurt toping

You can download the instructions in german. Or see our pattern, tutorials and recipes page to get it from there.

dessert: french apple tarte with homemade vanilla sauce

See the recipe here in German.

Private Plates – Guests

Oh what a night! We had much fun and laughed a lot with our nice guests!

Anna Tembrink – knit-fashiondesigner

Manuela Chiogna – italian designer

Sina M öhring – Illustrator

Sven Bäuker – designer and cabinetmaker

I cooked a menu with three dishes again:

Starter: red cabbage salad with pomegranate seeds and pecan nuts

Main course: veggie Tajine with Curcuma bulgur and yoghurt toping

dessert: french apple tarte with homemade vanilla sauce

Stay tuned for the recipes! It takes a little time to write them down. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures of the prepared dishes… Sorry for that but you at least can get a small impression on the meal by looking at the cooking photos. Just click here.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Private Plate. 3rd Edition – Preparations

Today is the day. Private Plates Edition 3 is taking place this evening. I sepnd my day at the shop and prepare everything here and Katrin is preparing the food.  See here some colourful pics of the food preparations (because tidying up the shop is not that spectacular).

Apparnetly there will be red food. I am curious what Katrin is preparing!! Hmmm…Yummie!

(pics from Marsupialia)

Another glamorous shop opening

Last Saturday I attended another glamorous shop opening. This time in  at Moritzplatz, where Sylke and Nicole opened their shop “schoener.waers.wenns.schöner.waer“. They only sell products that are sustainable, ecological, fair and marvelous. Their slogan in German “Kauft nachhaltig besser, öko, fair & wunderbar.” All the people enyojed Bio Sparkling Wine and tasted bio chocolate…hmmm! Unfortunately I was there very late and missed the afternoon program and the big crowd of people.

Nicole and Sylke enjyoing their evening.

They presented their postcards very nicely!

This lamps are my favourite products… unfortunately quite expensive.

(pics from SWWSW. Linked to their soruces)

Hand-Knitting presented by Martha

I want to share a new way of knitting, Martha my neighbour’s daughter showed to me couple of days ago. It was so sweet to follow her instructions that she gave to me so professional and serious – I was stunned. So here is my little sketched instructions how to knit with your hands only. Start with a slip knot which you slip over your small finger. Then proceed with second picture in my instructions.

And how it looks like when Martha does it.

Its reminds me of knitting with the Strickliesl but you get a straight, not knitted in round piece. The bigger your fingers are, the more loopy your knitting will get. Enjoy testing!

Over a Year – Blog Anniversary

Wow! Time flies by and we can see back on over a year blogging history. Striking experience, no doubt! And we are happy to do it still with the same enthusiasm. Topics change a little as we are now REAL business owners and our big life time-dream came true. So no more struggling with boring courses and, sniff, no more marketing classes with Anthony. Still discovering new labels, people and little treasures. Confessing about obsessions and joyfully puzzling on new ideas. Thanks for taking part, for writing comments, visiting us here and in real life. A big Thank You for your company in our daily Beuteltiere live.

Time for a little cake and celebration.