Favorite Castle

You probably are thinking that we visited our favorite castle this weekend. Actually it would be TOO hard to choose one favorite...but this castle is named "Schloss Favorite" or "Castle Favorite". It was built as a summer residence by the Duchess Augusta in 1710 near the town of Rastatt where their principal residence was located. Schloss Favorite is often called a "porcelain palace" because many of the walls, fireplaces and different places in the palace are covered with over 5,000 handpainted porcelain tiles, each one unique. They reminded me of the blue and white tiles we usually associate with Delft Holland but our guide told us that these tiles were from Nuremburg and were blue because at that time that was the only color they could fire.



Another thing that makes this castle a treat to visit is that it was never bombed or otherwise destroyed so the decorations, floors and ceilings are 70% original. Each room was different than the others, and just when you thought you found the one you liked the best we would go into another. One had hundreds of mirrors decorating the walls and ceilings of the room and painted portions and little shelves with porcelain and china vases and things. Another was a 'game cabinet' and was all done up in black laquer. The floors throughout the castle were either made of wood polished smooth by years of slippered feet or a unique kind of faux marble called scagliola decorated floor that we were not allowed to walk on because of it's delicate condition. We were only allowed to take pictures in the great hall in the center of the castle where they would entertain guests. It is 3 stories tall and is awe inspiring.




Once we finished our tour we took a nice stroll through the wonderfully landscaped gardens and enjoyed looking at all the different kinds of trees and waterways. Bill and Colin found someone's cork and toothpick boat stuck in some reeds and rescued it. Boys will be boys! I came upon a mother swan resting with her adolescent 'ugly duckling' babies and one started to come over to me but got startled and they all headed for the water. Phooey..I thought I was going to get to pet a swan! Ah well.

A Midsummer Nights Dream

Last night we attended a special presentation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream performed by the American Theatre Troupe in the courtyard of Heidelberg Castle. We got some great seats front and center since we got there early and enjoyed the atmostphere of the castle as the actors set up the stage and the rest of the audience arrived. I had never seen a Shakespeare play and wasn't sure what to expect, but we had read a synopsis of the story online before we went so we would have some background. The way they interpreted the play was so fun and interesting, we were not the least bit confused OR bored. Bill and I got some great pictures of the performence and we all agreed that we would love to see another play like this again. Colin said "I can't wait to find out about MORE Shakespeare plays!"

850 years!

This year marks the 850th year that the town we live in, St. Leon, has been in existance. Yes, 850...that is NOT a typo! That means that the town we are living in is 619 years older than our country! It is hard to even get my head around that. There was a street fest all weekend long, and on Sunday afternoon was the big event, the historical parade. The first entries in the parade were honored guests who were either walking or riding in coaches.
















After all the dignitaries rode past we were treated to a trip through time beginning with the Stone age.
Once all the cavemen and women (and kids) went by we moved into Roman times with soldiers and others wearing tunics and other Roman garb, isn't this little one a cutie??






The next event in the history of St. Leon was when the Bishop of Speyer turned over the land (I'm not sure to whom, it is hard to translate the history). They had a float depicting this.



This was followed by several different walking groups showing traditional clothing from the 15th and 16th century. Mostly women who are going to the markets.



There were a few different bands with colorful uniforms and flags interspersed throughout the parade. I loved watching them twirl them around with one hand above and around their heads. I am sure their arms must have been VERY tired!













Our friends the Nichol's family lives right on the parade route so they invited us to watch the parade from their home. Their son Jack shared a window with me.


The next people in the parade were the children who attend the town Kindergarden. Their banner said they were celebrating the 125th anniversary of the school. The kids were so cute carrying their brightly decorated pretzel sticks and some on their bikes.






Following the cute little kids was a group of people dressed up in the clothing and wigs from the Baroque age. I bet they were glad to return to our time at the end of the parade and get out of those hot costumes!

















The next group was a lively bunch of men who were depicting some of the events in the Peasant's war. They carried rifles and shouted "Revolution!!!" as they went by.


The next part of the parade that I have pictures of was a tractor pulling a wagon with a mock asparagus (or spargel as it is called here) field. Our next door neighbor until last year was a spargel farmer and he was driving the tractor. Hallo Herr Gromlisch!!!



Following this was a lot of old tractors and machinery showing the beginnings of the age of Industry. I love looking at all the old farm stuff.





The next group of people in the parade were the construction workers who built the New Catholic Church. The outfits these men are wearing are still often worn today, usually by young people who are doing their apprentice work and travel around the country looking for places to learn their trade.






The builders were followed by a group of men who were depicting some of the last ones to return home from the War and also some women who I assume represented wives looking for their lost husbands.





The last entries in the parade were showing what kinds of clubs and activities you can be a part of in St. Leon today. There were soccer and volleyball clubs, other sports clubs, a dog club, horseback riding club....many many different ways to join in with people who like the same things you do. I thought the whole thing was very exciting, it was fun to see everyone dressed up waving their little flags. The people along the parade route decorated the front of their houses with tree branches and flags and bunting and streamers too. And look....even Colin got into it...that's him with 2 flags stuck in his hat! (and shhh....there is Bill with HIS camera too!)

The frogs are marching one by one hurrah..hurrah...

Well actually they are marching two by two! During this time of year the frogs and toads and other amphibians are making their way to lakes and ponds to mate and lay their eggs. Here in Germany the people are very concerned about making sure the little critters make it there alive, and since many need to cross busy highways to get to the water there are all sorts of fences and speed zones and even tunnels built to accomplish this. The website for our area says that there are 21 different kinds of amphibians here and 14 are on the list of threatened species. They say that if there are 60 cars going by every hour they are likely to kill 90 percent of the frogs trying to make it across the road. There is a group called NABU that organizes groups of volunteers all over the country to walk along the fences and collect up the frogs in buckets and help them across the road. I haven't been able to get a photo of any frogs this year, but I read on another website that the weird weather we have had this year has caused the numbers of frogs collected by the workers to be way down. Here is a photo of the frog fence just outside our town though.

3rd Place!!!

I so can't believe that I made it that far in the Survivor Challenge at Scrapbook Chalet. The voting this week was SOO close! Because of the time difference it would have been 2AM for me when the polls closed so I didn't wait up to watch exactly how it went but when I was still up it was neck and neck constantly. I would get a vote and then next thing I knew there would be a tie and then someone else would be ahead by one etc. I honestly don't know HOW people chose who to vote for because all 3 of the layouts were top notch, but someone had to go and this time it was me. But remember...the last 3 of us are all winners! I will be recieving a prize too! This is the first time I have tried any contest like this and I had a great time meeting new people and stretching myself and trying some new techniques. I really think I did some of my best work during this time. WhoohooO!

For this last week we were given a sketch from Pencil Lines to work from. It was a TOUGH one with lots of photos! Click HERE to see it. I decided to do mine on the theme of My Favorite Things. It just popped into my head as I was falling asleep the night after we were given the sketch. It took me awhile to find the pictures I wanted and figure out how to fit them in and not look too crowded or busy. Letting a few of them sit at random angles and leaving a white border (on some it looks like a polaroid) helped a lot I think. The part that took the longest was the sewing. I REALLY liked how it added to my layout last week so I knew I wanted to include it on this one as well. I created a kind of 'crazy quilt' design and did a lot of zigzag looking stitching to make that happen. And since I hardly ever get to do flowers with all the boys in our house I HAD to take the chance to add in some 3D ones like Jeanne makes! I used my new Stampin Up stamps on patterned paper and cut them out and played with them til they looked right. FUn! Anyway...enough talk....let's see that layout!!



I want to wish Hard Core Scrapper and Shawna17 the best of luck in this final round!! Laura gave them a TOUGH ad challenge and I can't wait to see how they interpret it! Come see and be sure to vote next Wednesday and see who wins the Cricut!

If you thought this looked like fun....Laura is gearing up for ANOTHER awesome contest this Saturday! I know I will be playing...what about YOU?!!

No WAY!!!!

I am SO tickled! I made it through to the last week of the Survivor Contest at Scrapbook Chalet!! I still can't believe it. Thank you thank you I can't say it enough to all the ladies who voted for my layouts. I am still pinching myself! Next week 3 of us, Me, "HardCoreScrapper", and "Shawna17" will be working with the same sketch to see who is the winner. The 1st place prize is a CRICUT! 2nd place winner will receive a 50 dollar gift basket from Scrapbook Chalet and the 3rd place winner a 25 dollar basket. We are all winners!!! This is so exciting, I certainly didn't expect to get this far.

For our Challenge last week Laura paired up the remaining 8 contestants and had us scraplift a layout from the other person's gallery. Margo and I got to scraplift each other. I chose to use a layout she did of her dad because I liked the layering and stitching and doodles on her layout.

Here is Margo's layout:


Here is my layout:

and yes....just like Margo I don't have a sewing machine....so all that sewing you see on both our pages, yup...hand done! My fingers are still fussing at me for that but I think it was worth it! Whoohoooo!!!

Still Surviving!

I have been lazy in sharing my work in the Survivor Contest I am playing at Scrapbook Chalet. Sorry! Yup, I am still in it. Every week the list gets shorter and shorter...5 gals at a time. Wednesdays are real nailbiters!

The challenge for Week 6 was for us to create a layout using:
3 patterned papers, plus the cardstock
Atleast 2 photos
1 jounaling block
Atleast 10 embellishments (flowers, brads, buttons, metal, etc.)

I usually use at least 3 papers so that wasn't too tricky...but making sure I had at least 10 embellishments was the real tough part for me! I ended up doing my layout using the photos and story about 3 Kings Day. There was plenty of stuff to journal about and I made a crown with 'bling' on it to count as some of the embellishments. I really like how the whole thing came together. I guess everyone else did too cuz I wasn't voted off!



The challenge for last week was a scraplift challenge. Laura gave us 2 layouts done by Leslie Ashe and let us choose one to scraplift. I loved this one she did of her son, it was bright and fun and had a lot of energy. I used a picture of Jeffrey right after we let him get his hair dyed blue. He was so happy and proud of himself and everyone was commenting that they couldn't believe we let him do that. My reply was always "its Just Hair!" (and that really proved to be true...unfortunately for Jeffrey the dye they used wasn't as permanent and he would have liked and in a few weeks he was blonde again.)



This last week Laura opened up the last bit of the voting to everyone on the site because there was a HUGE tie. She said that everyone will get a chance to vote this week too!

It's off to France for the day!

Wednesday Bill took the day from work to join me on a USO trip to the Potter's Village of Soufflenheim just across the border in France. This was part of my Valentine's Day gift from him and was a rare treat for me to have him all to myself for the day. Soufflenheim is famous for its pottery and has been populated with potters since the Emperor Barberrouse granted the guild the exclusive rights to the clay in the neighboring forest. The streets are lined with halftimbered houses and little signs directing people to the various pottery shops and workshops throughout the town. The type of pottery that they make in Soufflenheim is a glazed type of pottery with hand painted flowers or other designs. It is made to be used 'everyday' as one of the potters told us. It can be used in the oven, in the microwave and even on top of a gas stove. I bought a few smaller pieces to go with the larger lidded casserole dish that I already have.

My Celebrity Look-alikes

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.