Andorra

On our most recent trip we were able to cross off two new countries--Spain and Andorra. We flew into Barcelona, rented a car and headed up to Andorra for one night. It was not the most convenient nor affordable of side trips, but it was a must to visit the small country that is nestled between Spain and France. 

Andorra is known for shopping (duty free, of course) and nature. We spent our first evening walking down the main shopping street. If you love perfume, this is the place to come. I think every other store was a perfume shop (a bit hyperbolic, but there were soooo many). 

Our hotel room had the best view! There was a rushing stream right outside. It was especially perfect for white noise at night. 

I keep forgetting to look it up, but this statue is based on Salvador Dali's work and it was in the main shopping area of Andorra la Vella. 

One benefit of our hotel was their spa! Andorra has a lot of spas (much like Germany) and we wanted to spend a least a bit of time there. Our reservation included time in the hot tub which we did not realize until check-in. We were fully prepared to pay extra for it, so that was a very pleasant surprise! 

The other nice thing about our hotel was the in-house restaurant. We chose a half-board reservation which means our time included dinner. We enjoyed our first taste of Cava at dinner. Cava is a sparkling wine, similar to Champagne, that is unique to this region. It is very popular in Barcelona, as well.

Breakfast was included and it was so darn good! They had an amazing selection including a full piece of dripping honeycomb. We were definitely fueled up for a little hike and journey back to Barcelona. 

As I said earlier, Andorra is known for nature. There are tons of hiking trails, skiing opportunities (in the season) and outdoor activities of all kinds. Throughout the country are wooden creatures called Tamarros. They are protectors of nature and the forests. There was one close to our hotel that we set out to find. It was a dreary morning, but we started on our trek, nonetheless. However, after thunder, lightening and hail started coming down and no Tamarro Andy in site, we turned around. We still do not know exactly how much farther we had to go to find him, but maybe we will return one day. 

Bolesławiec, Poland: Food and glass blowing

On my recent trip to Poland with the spouses' club, we stayed at The Blue Beetroot Hotel. It is a charming hotel with a lot of character. Our room had beautiful wooden beams on the ceiling and the in-house restaurant had delicious food. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast buffet each morning. 

We spent two nights, so we had two opportunities to eat dinner at the restaurant. For my first night, I chose the pumpkin cream soup (yum), goulash (delicious) and apple cake. The apple cake was slightly disappointing, especially compared with my own apple cake. But it was a great meal with good company, nonetheless. 

Another stop in town, aside from the plethora of pottery shops, was a glass blowing studio. We were all immediately drawn to the fun, whimsical pieces scattered around the entrance. 

Once inside, we browsed their shop where it was hard to decide what pieces to take home. I ended up with a blown-glass ornament and a kiwi (pictured below). The kiwi was a bit of an impulse buy. They reminded me so much of Disney's Alice in Wonderland, one of my all-time favorites, that I had to take one home with me. 

We were also treated to a glass-blowing demonstration. I have watched the Netflix show Blown Away, so I felt more educated on the process and terminology with glass blowing, but nothing beats seeing it in person. 

The oven behind the glass-blower holds only clear glass. He would have to visit it many times throughout the process to add more and more glass to the piece. They add color by rolling the hot glass in colored pieces of glass. For the piece they are working on, they also had to add a swirl of another color. It was really neat to see the technique. 

Glass-blowing is a team job! It was really cool to see them work together. It was like watching a choreographed dance as each person knew that the other would be there when they needed them. 

The little cup around the hot glass is made out of wood and is used to help shape the glass into the desired shape. They have to replace these often since they wear out from the intense heat. It smelled really good, too. It was like being at a campfire!

I have not eaten a lot of (or any???) Polish food. Our lunch stop on day one was to Opalkowa Chata which had an extensive menu in addition to a selection of specialty vodkas. It was hard to decide what to order and I ended up with way more food than I could handle. I tried both the beef and the blueberry perogies. Both were so delicious! One of my friends ordered the cheese and potato perogies. We traded each other one, so I was able to try that type as well. So yummy! One thing I thought was interesting was that on the menu the cheese and potato perogies were originally called Russian Perogies, but they marked through "Russian" in solidarity with Ukraine. 

The exterior of the restaurant had some great folk art pieces! 

Bolesławiec, Poland: pottery shopping

On a recent trip to Boleslawiec, Poland with the spouses' club, we visited a bunch of pottery shops! While I am not a huge fan of Polish pottery (blue is just not my color), I was intrigued to see the many patterns and find out what all the hype is about. 

At one of our stops, we had the pleasure of seeing behind the scenes for a little tour. Ceramika Andar showed us the process, starting with the big slabs of clay they begin their work with. They use the clay to make slip (a watered down clay) to use in slip-casting their mugs, plates and other pieces. 

We walked through the drying room where pieces are drying out in anticipation of their bisque firing prior to being glazed. 

The ladies were hard at work getting the pieces cleaned up so they would be ready for the kiln. 

One of the ladies in my group took this picture and I just loved the close up of the plaster molds and some of the little creamer jugs. 

This ceramic shop is a family affair. The father, wife, son and daughter all work in the shop. This is the wife. She was hard at work painting Christmas trees. It was really cool to see how quickly she was able to finish each one. 

This was our guide through the workshop. 

Another popular shop in town is Andy Polish Pottery. This was actually our very first stop of our shopping excursion. They had a wide selection of pieces. I picked up some Jack o' Lanterns, Christmas ornament and little sleeping kitty figurine here. 

This is a small snapshot of the selection at Andy's. In addition to this, there was a whole other room filled with pieces. 

Seiffen, Germany

For Veteran's Day weekend we visited Seiffen, Germany. We were originally planning to  visit Bolesławiec, Poland but neither of us were really looking forward to the long drive. Seiffen was a couple hours closer. In addition, I had to miss the spouses' club trip to Seiffen so it made sense to switch our plans and go together. 

Seiffen is known as the place where traditional German Christmas decorations like Nutcrackers, arches (or Schwibbogen) and pyramids originated. The locals, back in the day, were miners but after the mines were closed they had to find new ways to make a living. Their skills translated well to woodworking and thus the wooden decor and toy industry flourished. 

I did not really know what to expect from the town. It's a pretty small town without a lot of tourist information available. I had seen some pictures from a couple of the spouses who went on the spouse club trip, so I had a little bit of an idea but experiencing it in person was totally different!

Throughout the town you can find these really beautiful lights showing popular designs. This one is showing the angel motif. I'll talk about that a little bit later. Whenever we travel, we like to pick up an ornament for our Christmas tree. Our ornament from Seiffen is a mini version of one of these lights. 

We brought Suzie along with us on the trip to avoid having to find a pet sitter on a weekend when a lot of the military community were also traveling. Because of Suzie, we ended up on some walks we might not have taken otherwise. Charles took this picture on one of his solo walks with Suzie. 

We stayed in one of the apartments at the Spielzeughof. The location was perfect as it was just up a hill from the main drag with all the shops and restaurants. It was so peaceful! This little nutcracker lives in the apartment and was a nice piece of Seiffen to admire during our stay. 

Every European city has a church and this is Seiffen's. We did not check out the interior, but walked around the outside a bit on one of our walks with Suzie. You can purchase arches, pyramids and more that feature this church. The arch I really wanted had it on there. Unfortunately, the store employees were not sure if it was compatible with 110v so we chose not to buy it. I'll have to do some research about that and maybe purchase it another time.

On the main drag in Seiffen we saw lots of little huts like these serving anything from gluhwein, snacks and wooden decor pieces. This grouping was outside of the the restaurant (Holzwurm) we had dinner on Saturday evening. It was especially cute in the evening with the stars and string lights on. Our dinner was delicious, so I highly recommend making a reservation for when you are in town. 

I finally experienced gluhwein while visiting Seiffen! Gluhwein is a hot, mulled wine drink and can come in a variety of flavors. The first day in town I had a white wine with Amaretto version that was my favorite! I didn't snap a picture because it was served in a Styrofoam cup (not Instagram worthy). I also had some from a local bakery to accompany a pastry. That one was my least favorite. Our third cup, pictured here, was from one of the stands in town. We thought about keeping the mugs, but unfortunately they were from the 2019 Seiffen Christmas market and we didn't think it would be worth it. We returned for our 3 Euros back. 

Nestled amongst the shops and restaurants in town were large examples of the many pieces you can buy in the stores. This one shows the angel and miner. These were popular back in the day and you can still find them in the windows of the local homes. They can be illuminated with regular candles, battery powered candles or electricity. In the background of this picture, you can also seeing a couple in the top left. They move so they get closer and closer until they kiss. There is even a kissing sound that accompanies it! 

We purchased quite a few things on our trip. Seiffen had all the things my heart was dreaming about when it comes to German decor, especially for Christmas. We spent our first day in town visiting lots of shops (and there are LOTS of shops); we took pictures of pieces we liked and made a list of our top priorities to make sure we did not blow our budget. The next day, we went back to the shops to make our purchases. When we were planning our trip, I was worried that a three day weekend was going to be too long, but it was perfect as we were not rushed to make our purchase decisions and had plenty of time to visit as many shops as our hearts desired. 

One thing I wasn't necessarily planning on getting were the angel and miner. We saw so many cute ones throughout town and this is the set we decided on. I especially like the miner from this set (pictured below) because of his fancy coat tails. 

We have a Nutcracker collection that is displayed all year long. We went into our trip desiring a taller Nutcracker since our others are roughly the same height. Well, as you can see, we ended up with one that is quite a bit taller than our others. Charles wanted one that had the miner symbol on his hat and there were a few to choose between. 

Smokers are also a popular item in the shops. We have a couple that Greg gifted us with from his time living in Germany and we have two small ones that we bring out for Christmas. When we saw the beekeeper, we had to have him! Charles also loved the toymaker so we brought him home, too. 

We purchased a couple other pieces that we will put out for Christmas including a pyramid and a pinecone that is decorated with tiny pieces like a shepherd and sheep. It was very unique!

Design: Thrift Shop Hours

Our base Thrift Shop is adding some hours in October and I was asked to create a flyer to promote it. Since the new hours are starting in October, I decided to go with a fall theme for the flyer. I saw something kind of similar during a Google search and thought it would be fun to create something like it.

Fonts used
Adorable
Quicksand

Design: Thrift Shop

Our Officers' Spouses' Club operates the thrift shop on base. For the month of July the shop was closed so volunteers could work on making some improvements. They are continually doing projects to make the shop better and better. I was asked to create a flyer to promote the reopening of the shop.

Sometimes it is hard to find a background graphic that does not have a watermark on it. I probably saw a whole bunch that I would have loved to use, but I didn't want to pay to use them without the mark on them. I found this one and it works great! It also provided me with a fun, bright, cheery color scheme that would catch some attention.

Fonts used
Little Lord Fontleroy
Quicksand

My materialistic side

I thoroughly enjoy shopping. It is even better when you can shop with a gift card or someone else's money. At the moment I have a bunch of gift cards from Christmas and my birthday burning a hole in my wallet. I have one gift card to Williams-Sonoma and I have NO IDEA what to buy with it. They have so much stuff. I was all set on a couple things but one was backordered until August. That is just too long to wait.

For my birthday, my parents gave me a great gift card to Home Goods! I love that place. I can't stand to clothes shop at T.J.Maxx and such. It is too overwhelming. But I can handle Home Goods. I went down yesterday with a plan. I wanted some new lamps and a new comforter/quilt for my bedroom.

Here's what I ended up with:

Our move gave me an excuse to get rid of the old plastic shower curtain we had in the guest bathroom. I found this teal/aqua and white one. I also purchased a new bathroom rug because the old one also went in the trash before the move. This one incorporates the colors we had before (green and yellow) but also adds the teal/aqua and navy in case we want to switch things up later.

I love my new lamp! I have been wanting one that I can put stuff in (like my buttons). If they had two I would have purchased both, but they only had one. I am thinking about putting a vinyl T on the outside.

We used to have a wicker basket under the side table. The kitties thought it was a secondary scratching post. I am thinking about making a liner for this basket, but I do not know how ambitious I am.

Since we have been making our own bread we have more flour--bread flour and whole wheat flour. I don't like to keep it in the bags. I found these great containers. A decent priced container is hard to come by.

I have been wanting a new comforter for a LONG time. The old one had some tears in it and was starting to look worn. I have been thinking about a grey comforter which is harder to find than you might think. The picture doesn't really do the color justice...it's slightly darker in person. This one has a great circle quilting pattern to it. Plus it is thinner than our old comforter; this will be nice in the summer when it is a million degrees here.

New goal!

A while back I posted some goals I had while Charles was away for training. I accomplished very little. Procrastination is partly to blame. Laziness is another factor.


My newest goal is to become a better runner. I'm by no means a runner. I have loathed it for most of my life. However, I know it's a great work out and I need something easy. I mostly need to work on my endurance; I'm not really sure how to go about that.

While Charles was visiting, we stopped at the local running store so he could try on some new running shoes. His are about a year old and worn down from use. While we were there I figured I should be fitted. I was mostly curious about what kind of shoes would work best with my foot. I was not really planning on buying any. After trying on several pairs of shoes each, Charles and I both ended up with the same shoe. It's funny how that worked out.

Charles is always quick to give in to something that encourages me to work out more so the shoes were purchased. To justify this purchase, he said I should try to run at least once a week. That is now my goal.

New boots!

Brand--Guess

I am very excited about my new boots. I purchased them on Sunday from DSW to replace my old brown boots. They were looking worn and were a little more casual than I wanted for work and such. I had a $10 off rewards coupon and a Double Points coupon for DSW, so I headed over to see what they had to offer. I found the best boots which were exactly what I was looking for!

They are very comfortable. When I bought my old boots, they were flats and very comfortable to wear. So I was a little nervous about buying boots with a heel for work. Some days a heel just doesn't cut it. But I've worn my new boots to work twice this week and my feet haven't done any complaining.

The first day I wore them everyone commented on how cute they were or my outfit was. And my boss kept singing "These boots were made for walking..."

The other day I wore them with a brown dress and an orange striped sweater. It was such a fall outfit and it looked very cute. Of course I didn't get a picture. :)

Stores I wish were closer

Before moving to Dayton, I thought "Dayton...I've heard of it, so it must be a fairly big city". Therefore, my conclusion was that they would have all the stores I enjoy shopping at. For the most part, they do. They have Target, Old Navy, DSW, Michael's, etc. However, I wish they had the following:

- World Market. Charles and I love going to World Market. They always have such neat stuff and great candy! Their furniture is beautiful, too. If I had a million dollars, I know a few things I would love to buy from them.

- H&M. I've never actually lived somewhere near an H&M. I take that back...when I was a kid (think 4-7 years old), we lived in Stuttgart, Germany and they had an H&M. I was not, however, in charge of picking out my clothes then. My first adult experience with H&M was when Charles had an internship in D.C. and we went. They had such cute clothes! Last summer, when we visited Stuttgart, we went to H&M. But I was with Charles and his brother so the shopping was just a mere peeking in and admiring all the cute inexpensive clothes.

-Ikea. The closest one is in Cincinnati which isn't that far from here...only about an hour. But it's just far enough that I don't want to drive there unless I'm absolutely sure I'm going to purchase something. There are some pieces of furniture that I would love to have from Ikea and some things that I want to check out, but it's just not time to commit.