No returns

Over the past so long I have been tagged with blog awards by:
Nona of A Red Robin
the mysterious lady of Hello, Monkeyface
Franca of Oranges and Apples
and I guess Ines of Cinnamon Eve too who tagged us all

Thanks you guys :) I'd tag you right back but apparently that 's not on.

I figured I'd bend the rules and rather than complete the tasks each award demands I'll be sharing some stuff about myself.


I still have my milk teeth. In a wooden jar. With "Stefanie's milk teeth" engraved in the lid. It is surprisingly common to keep them in areas where the Tooth Fairy doesn't roam. Seriously, what does that girl do with all them teeth? I have no idea what to do with just a handful.. other than take photos of course :D



The other half and I had been best friends for two years by the time we finally hooked up.

Our wedding invitations were an American Gothic spoof but nobody got the joke.

My parents had a wager on how tall I would grow. My Dad bet I'd make it to 180cm/~5'11'' but I stopped 3 centimeters short at approx 5'9 ½'' tall.

I caused controversy when I played God in a secondary school class play culminating in my throwing a bowl full of heavenly Manna (i.e. stale popcorn) into the audience. Numerous smaller children promptly crawled around the floor munching the droppings while Mothers formed a huddle of outrage, certain it was the popcorn they had brought I made such a mess of (it wasn't. I brought my own). Like little Lisa Simpson I could not comprehend how they could misunderstand my artistic expression so completely.

It was on a school trip when in the heat of the moment I slapped each of four friends in the space of just a few seconds. Hard. Major regrets and some surprise at the damage I caused to one of the girls' nose. Ouch. Who would have thought a little nose like that could bleed so profusely?

My Dad filmed me at the dentist when I was seven (testing his new camera). Luckily I wasn't scared of the clown with the drill, otherwise that might have turned into not only an unusual but a disturbing home video. :)


Now for the shoebox:



Our place is narrow and crowded. Cosy is the word. There are die cast cars driving along the walls (blue tack is my friend) as well as a little plane and lots of bottle tops with tiny picture in them. I am a sucker for toys so there are quite a few kaleidoscopes, marbles and spinning tops around the place. I also have the odd creepy doll head on display. My bedside lamp is a lit up globe. Just about my favourite thing ever. I love giving it a little spin :)




You can see six little things that make me happy over here and
three more bits about me there

When I was little I always thought the master rule of no returns made tag an awful drag. I wasn't a particularly fast runner you see. But in the blogosphere I run as fast as anyone, so I am tagging these guys:

Jan of Aerogram for Jan
Maggie of Dimestore Diamond
Lauren and Dan of other dutch animals
Emily of Resplendent Tranquility
Dakota of Sweetheart of the Rodeo (currently on a blogging break but check her blog out anyway)
Claire of tunabake times

What'you waiting for? Get clicking those links :D

Ra-Ra-Rasputin

Last weekend the weather was dreadful but for the first time ever I swallowed my fears of wrecking my precious camera in the rain and ventured out anyway. My blue coat is not in any of these shots because my camera was wearing it for the shoot :) Turns out when I turn up the collar like my camera is James Dean the lens is covered but not obscured and my Precious remains bone dry. Epic win!



I took the photo above the clouds on our way home from Austria. It was a rather dreary day too.



So I am no Boney M fan or anything but wearing this brilliant hat I do feel a little bit like singing that old chestnut or rolling my Rrrrrs like a faux-Rrrrussian film villain. (I also put on a fake German accent sometimes although really I got the genuine article. You vill laugh at my jokes! Yeeees?)

For the record, I originally wore this earlier in the week with white tights and the super cozy boots I got in Austria but when I put it back on for the photos I felt a little more colourful :) So in true slob fashion I wore the outfit again all Saturday long with extra pinkness added.

Hat & scarf: ex Mom's
Dress: Tara Starlet
Cardi: Charity shop (yay!)
Shoes: some bargain bin years ago

Around the house

There is nothing quite like a wood burning masonry stove.  It is always cosy sitting in this spot :)



Detail of one of my Mom's paintings. You can see more of her work here.



This wooden miniature interior has been on my parents' kitchen wall so long it took me a while to even notice it. Funny how we forget about familiar things :) 



I was wearing these boots every day while I was in Austria but I think this is the only decent close up of them :) I've been meaning to check the label all that time and can finally say: They're Legero Gore-tex boots. Warm, dry and comfy. :)







All of these shots were taken in Austria by the way. I repeat: This is not the shoe box :D Just in case you were wondering :)

Midweek you guys. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a sunny weekend. What do you mean, unreasonable expectations for the end of January?! :D

Sweater: Present years ago
Dress: Tara Starlet
Boots: Present

Salt River

I am only showing you one of the doors rather than the good bit here but if you like a cold beer you should most certainly pay the Augustiner Bräu Mülln a visit. It is one big old beer hall and if you're a carnivore you'll enjoy it far more than me ;) They have a great selection of cold meats and sausages to soak up all that drink :)



On the way to the river



On one of the numerous bridges across the Salzach looking towards the Festung Hohensalzburg and historic centre of town still wrapped in morning mist.



Meet my other half :)



And last but not least:

I went skiing for the first time in over 9 years! My Dad and I used to go skiing together all the time and we always had a lot of fun on these Father-Daughter Days. This year was no exception :) It was great to stand on those boards again. I'd never used carvers/parabolic skis before but you don't see anything but on the slopes nowadays. I must say they're pretty forgiving and you don't have to lift your skis to turn (though you can if you like. I like).

I was relieved to find that skiing = cycling. It all comes back in no time, even after near enough a decade!





Vanity commands me to tell you that these photos were taken on my second run of the day so I wasn't quite back to my usual skiing prowess just yet. ;)


Hat: ex Mom's
Scarf: ex Mom's
Dress: Lipstick Vogue
Sweater: Superstore
Skirt: Etsy (vintage)
Boots: Present

Jacket worn skiing: Mom's
Earmuffs: Accessorize

Easy on the parentheses (not)

I couldn't resist another set of headlight images with my Dad's assistance. (Check out last years here)

If When we get a car I'll go nuts on nighttime shoots I tell you. I didn't get the lighting quite right this time but blue hour shoots are still such a novelty to me I get all excited and end up making rookie errors (should have taken more lights to get some more clean areas as counterpoints for the strong cyan cast.. are you still reading this? Really? Made you yawn though, right?). Where was I? Oh, yes-
If When we get our own ride I must invest in a generator so I can do crazy twilight shoots in the woods with my portable studio kit. That poor kit has been sorely neglected since we moved into our shoe box home. There simply is no space to set up anywhere in our place (why, you couldn't swing a cat or any critter at all for that matter) and there simply is no point getting a generator for outdoor shoots when your only means of transport is a rusty push bike or your own two feet.

My, what a tirade. Move along now, no fanatic to see here..







So, are you bored with the Mirabell palace yet? It houses the magistrate so you can loiter in the hallway and take silly pictures on the staircase or you can be all official and get hitched here (well, in the halls, not in the hallway!)

Happy weekend you all! :)

Scarf: perma-borrowed from Mom ;)
V-neck sweater: Mom's
Dress: Lipstick Vogue
Skirt: H&M some years ago
Boots: Present

In the Mountain

Maximushöhle (3rd century) - ceramic plate from 1860





In the cemetary



In the Maximushöhle



In the Maximus Höhle - circa 1860



Told you you'd see some more of St. Peter's ;)
After you've had some of their bread and walked through the cemetary you should also check out the catacombs at St. Peter's or more accurately: The cave churches. See those windows in the cliff face?


In the Gertraudiskapelle (Gertraudis chapel) consecrated in 1178



Hat: trad. Ischler hat (ex Mom's)
Scarf: ex Mom's
Dirndl: Present (H. Moser outlet)
Cardi: Present (Lanamoden Salzburg)
Boots: Present Oh my, I am such a spoiled brat! :D

Source of dates: Maximushöhle - The "catacombs" of Salzburg

Fortress Hohensalzburg

This one was taken up at the Nonnberg again (remember, Maria's convent) when we were walking up to the fortress. There is the Festungsbahn railway in case you're not the rambling type but unless you're schlepping small kids up there you'll reach the Festung Hohensalzburg in no time on foot so I wholeheartedly recommend the scenic route (sure seemed like a long way when I was last up there in primary school though..)



Anyone for a Prisoner reference? I kept waiting for Rover to make an appearance every time I saw one of these little tourist information booths..





The museum in the Festung is good fun. Lots of portraits of mustachioed men looking ever so important and busts of the very same. The above is a detail from a diorama of an alpine first world war phone switchboard









So I am the proud owner of not just one but two Dirndls now :) Seriously, I am spoiled rotten (danke Mama & Papa). My wardrobe is now chocker. :D As soon as there is no room for a second wardrobe in our shoe box home (and I am none too sure that would be a good idea even if we had the space) I think I had better concentrate on remixing until further notice. 50/365 here I come! (Although that might be a 60 or 70/365 after recent additions. I refuse to count! :D )

Can't wait to show you the dress in more detail. The hidden collar is rather lovely :)

Scarf: ex Mom's
Dirndl: Present (H. Moser outlet)
Cardi: Present (Lanamoden Salzburg)
Boots: Present

So you want to be an eraser collector

One of the fun things about spending time in my childhood home was going through old stuff. This year I binned my paper napkin collection, gave away my sticker albums and then became embarrassingly excited at the sight of my ehem.. eraser collection.
A few of them had become gooey and stuck together so I figured I had better show you before time catches up with the rest of my treasure ;) I am sure you're all glued to your swivel chairs right now so without further ado:



You should have seen my husband's face when he saw the tally on the side of my eraser box. The writing says "Amount of erasers" Check out the happy letters when I reached an (indescribably obsessive) 100 *sigh* Now you know exactly the kind of child I was :D



The racing car and rollerskate were always favourites because the wheels really turn an the striped clothes pin is fun too.





Looking through these I was making an ass of myself sniffing a number of the erasers. I remember some of the smells distinctly but over the years they have all faded. Was I sniffing some sort of rubber solvent back in the day? LOL



Since he has seen my rubbery loot every time I take the mickey out of my other half his answer is invariably: "At least I don't have an eraser collection". Clearly, a vain attempt to mask his envy. ;)

Google is my friend. :) Want to see another impressive collection? Check out this post on Tall Tara or go right to her Flickr eraser geek fest.