Zimmer frame anybody? Here come THE ZIMMERS/ Braucht wer Gehhilfen? Hier kommen THE ZIMMERS.

With an average age of 78 years they were not really destined to hit the charts, but a group of obedience refusing grandpas & grandmas reached the UK Charts with “ My Generation”. Smashing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY

Mit einem Durchschnittsalter von 78 Jahren waren sie nicht wirklich für die Charts vorgesehen, aber eine Gruppe von gehorsam verweigernden Opas & Omas kam in die UK Charts mit „ My Generation“. Bravo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY

Some of my teddies / Einige meiner Teddies

Funiculifunicula



























Geronimo

Barbra

I admit: I´m Marxist...of the Groucho fraction / Ich gebe zu: ich bin Marxist...von der Groucho Fraktion

A Night At The Opera, A Day At The Races- 2 albums bred by Queen in the 70s. Obviously Freddy Mercury had a soft spot for The Marx Brothers, who had produced 2 movies with the same titles sometime in the 1930s.

I have to admit, I was not as much a fan of the Marx Brothers during my childhood, as I am now.
Their twisted chaotic humor just hits you right between the eyes.
Groucho Marx was the brother, with the longest movie and TV presence, left us some quotes that still make me shiver…from laughter.

A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.
A man's only as old as the woman he feels. Alimony is like buying hay for a dead horse. Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.
Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife.
I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.
I have a mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it.
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.
I've got the brain of a four year old. I'll bet he was glad to be rid of it.
If I held you any closer I would be on the other side of you.
In Hollywood, brides keep the bouquets and throw away the groom.
Man does not control his own fate.
The women in his life do that for him.
Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?
No man goes before his time - unless the boss leaves early.
Room service? Send up a larger room.
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.
Wives are people who feel they don't dance enough.
And my all time favorite of Groucho Mary´s quotes is this:
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

Eine Nacht in der Oper und Ein Tag beim Rennen- 2 Albums hervorgebracht von Queen in den 70-ern.
Offensichtlich hatte Freddy Mercury eine Schwäche für die Marx Brothers, die unter den selben Titeln in den 1930-ern 2 Filme produziert hatten.

Ich muss zugeben, dass ich als Kind nicht so ein großer Marx Brothers Fan war wie heute.
Ihr verdrehter, chaotischer Humor trifft einen genau zwischen die Augen.
Groucho Marx, der Bruder mit der längsten Film und TV Präsenz, hat uns einige Zitate hinterlassen, die mich erzittern lassen…vor lachen.

Dad after his stroke

It´s now more than a month since my dad was rushed to hospital with a stroke.
Hundreds of never ending hours of fear, anxiety and worry have passed, and dad is now in rehab the second week.
He had started talking german already in hospital, where Mom & I were able to visite him daily.
Now out there we can only visite him on weekends- he´s too busy with all sorts of treatments and trainings and he complaines, that it´s going on too slowly.
He´s not somebody who´d just sit and wait, he´d rather be out there walking on his own than carefully wobbling around a table.
This is him still in hospital.




Mom & dad


















And that´s my dad 2 days ago.
For a 78 years old Rumpelstiltskin he looks smashing :)
I think mom should not worry so much about him and what´s going to happen- he´ll be fine.














Here they are together: my sweet little turtle doves ;))

Best friendzz / Beste Freundinnen

Josephine & Daphne became best friends and startet the couchpotatoe gang.
Don´t they just look like the originals?

Josephine & Daphne wurden beste Freundinnen und gründeten die Couchpotatoebande.
Sehen sie nicht wie die Originale aus?



Guess you can tell, that I´m a huge "Some Like It Hot" fan...

Man merkt, dass ich ein riesiger "Some Like It Hot" Fan bin...

Made from silk / Aus Seide gemacht

Daphne came next, her nose is longer and she is made from silk.

Daphne kam als nächste, ihre Nase ist länger und sie ist aus Seide gearbeitet.

My first own pattern/ Mein erster eigener Schnitt

Josephine was the first pattern I designed about 3 years ago.

Josephine, nach meinem ersten eigenen Schnitt vor ca. 3 Jahren.

Couchpotatoe- gang / Couchpotatoebande

How I design my teddies / Wie ich meine Teddies kreiere

One of my friends, holding one of my teddies, once asked me, how I design my teddies.
Well, I said, after the archetype of the man of my dreams:

• A huge nose, so he can always smell what I desire,
• Elefantous ears, so he cannot overhear anything,
• A gigentic belly to cuddle up to,
• Really long huggable arms,
• Montrous feet, so nothing can knock him over and
• Short legs, so he cannot run away from me.

Funnilly enough: when he stepped into my life, I did not recognize the man of my dreams from his physical attributes but the characteristics I connected to each attribute. :))

Eine Freundin hielt einmal einen meiner Teddies und fragte mich, wie ich meine Teddies kreiere.
Hmmm, meinte ich, nach dem Vorbild meines Traummannes:

• eine enorme Nase, damit er immer riechen kann, was ich grade begehre,
• elefantöse Ohren, damit er nichts überhört,
• einen gigantischen Bauch zum Kuscheln,
• wirklich lange Arme zum Festhalten,
• monströse Füße, damit ihn nichts umhaut und
• kurze Beine, damit er mir nicht davon laufen kann.

Lustig nur: als mein Traummann in mein Leben trat erkannte ich ihn nicht an seinen äusseren Eigenschaften sondern an den damit verbundenen Charakteristika. :))

As promised: description of the pix of Vienna

Let´s start with the chimney sweeper: I guess y´all know the luck bringing meaning of a chimney sweeper- well, this seams to be the reason, why he is attached to the house of the class lottery in the first district.

I´ve been browsing the net, but cannot find any particular reason for his being there. If I ever find out, I´ll let you know.

Taking the picture of the chimney sweeper I stood on a short bridge and turning to the left I took the second picture down to the road underneath.

This lovely building is the Hotel Orient.

It is one of these hotels, where they charge by the hour, but still very noble and most of all: not cheap. I´ve never been there, but I know, that some people just die from curiosity and spend a night there with their loved one. It´s obviously hip to have spent a night there; gives one the certain tingle of thinking, that one did something a wee bit on the naughty side

http://www.hotelorient.at/

The white house with the golden décor is one in a row of houses in the “Linke Wienzeile”. There are so many, that it really makes sense to go there again and make a whole series just about these houses, built during art deco, art nouveau and fin de siecle.

I didn´t have enough time; we were on the way back from the biggest and probably oldest market: the “Naschmarkt” which is an adventure in itself.

We bought loads of different nuts, dried fruit, vegetables and I was introduced to wasabi- nuts. Wow! Nuts covered in the green, hot Japanese veggie…ho-o-otttt!

The lovely filigree building on top of the hill is the “Gloriette”, viewed from the “Schloss Schönbrunn” , which nowadays houses a café with amazing view and delicious cakes.

Both beautiful sights were built in the 18^th century when Empress Maria Theresia ruled the vast empire and it is said, that there is a secret underground corridor between these two.

The craftsmen ship and the love to details is overwhelming, the creativity of the builders astounding!

The delightful flower arrangements still follow baroque patterns and this figure shows Diana, goddess of the hunt, who watches next to “Schloss Schönbrunn”.

The little red huts are wagons on the “Riesenrad” the giant ferris wheel in the Prater.

You can tell, that I love taking pix from unusual angles...

René and I took a ride on it, me frantically taking pix of the area ( like the next, which shows Vienna to the north east, with a view of the UN- building) and bubbling away about the sights and everything was fine until we reached the highest point and the wagon stopped. *Gulp*

I had been on it as a child and half grown up without problems. But that day I had to sit down and René tried hard to get my mind off the idea, that I was in a flying red wagon on the way to mars.

Boy, was I happy to step on firm ground again!

Here´s an impression of the ferris wheel behind a roller coaster while the sun went down, followed by the closed toboggan, where people would slide down on a bag. Somehow the wooden building became dangerous, was closed down and rottens away charmingly until it will be replaced by a modern gambling hall or something like that.

Toboggan reminds me of Billy Connolly, when he tells the story of how queer it sounds, if somebody says, that he is a tobaggonist ;))

The huge wale is the entrance to a Prater restaurant, “Zum Walfisch” – in English: The Whalefish. It is old, very old, dates back to the time, when whales were still regarded as fish.

Danube Island- built about 30 years ago to save Vienna from being flooded. It is partly natural and partly covered with restaurants, bars and discos, and is flooded during summer by Viennese, tourists and gazillions of moscitos and well known Europe- wide for it´s yearly Danube Island Festival.

We went to a safari dinner about a month ago, which was held in the yellow round building on the next foto.

It´s situated right in the middle of the zoo, and used to be the breakfast pavillion of the emperor.

Before this dinner we had a night guided tour after the zoo was closed for visitors, which was exciting itself, and then was followed by a masterpiece of an Austrian chef, who cooked with a tendency to African cuisine.

I´ll finish my little tour with some pix from the interiour of the pavillion: the gentleman on the oil painting is Emperor Kaiser Franz Josef I in his younger years. He ruled the empire from 1830-1916 and was married to Empress Elisabeth, also known as Sisi, who you might have heard of.

I hope you enjoye your wee tour through Vienna!

Oh noooooooo

It hadn´t happen in quite some time, but since 3 days I´m cought in a migraine.
My head is in a spin, my thoughts are and so am I- byebye!
To say it with a quote from Dr. Seuss :
“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!”

Ideas of how to get rid of it are very welcome:)

Lange Zeit hatte es mich verschont, aber seit 3 Tagen habe ich mich in einer Migräne verfangen.
Mein Kopf dreht sich, meine Gedanken, und i a- baba!
Um´s mit einem Zitat von Dr. Seuss auszudrücken:
" Denk links und denk rechts, denk tief und denk hoch. Oh, all die Dinge die du dir ausdenken kannst wenn du´s nur probierst!"

Ideen, wie ich die wieder los werde, sind gern gelesen:)