Our sleepy little town of 5,000 woke up and partied all weekend, and continues to party today since it’s Whit Monday here in Germany. We’ve discovered that there are advantages and disadvantages to living three blocks from the local castle.

The great part is that we’re able to walk to the fests that take place on the castle grounds, like the Angelbachtaler Pfingstmarkt that’s been going on all weekend. We were treated to fireworks on Saturday night, and we didn’t even have to leave the house for a great view! It was really the best view of fireworks we’ve had in years.

(Note: I didn’t take these pics. They came from the brochure for the fest, since the pics I tried to take of the fireworks didn’t turn out well, and an aerial view of the castle is quite beyond my capacity…I also forgot to take my camera when we wandered over to the fest for lunch on Sunday, my bad. I do tend to be quite lame when it comes to pictures…the brochure is great though, even if you can’t read German, since there are lots of pictures of the fest and the goings on.)

After ITMan fixed waffles for breakfast for Mother’s day, we all went to the fest for lunch. The girls promptly disappeared to ride the ferris wheel, and we headed for the food tents. The local associations and clubs provide food and drink for the fest, and we discovered that the tennis club makes very good Schupfnudel mit Sauerkraut (my favorite fest food: potato noodles with sauerkraut and bacon or sausage bits, or both which is even better), and some yummy cakes and tarts as well.

We passed on the nighttime festivities at the castle, which included a music and laser light show, not being so in the mood for crowds and figuring we could always catch it next year. It would have been a pretty late night for all of us, since Monday wasn’t a day off for Americans of course, but we probably should have just gone anyway since as it was, we heard the whole thing loud and clear, which would be one of those disadvantages to living so close! The other downside would be the traffic: it seemed like every single fest-going car full of people parked on the streets in our neighborhood, or tried to at least. It was quite the full house.

The girls are headed back over there today for lunch, since they fell in love with the pizza they had on Sunday. Maybe I’ll have them bring back some more Schupfnudel mit Sauerkraut for me!

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Cruising around in blogland this morning, I had a good chuckle over this post at unclutterer. Heh, welcome to my world of houses with no built in storage or closets. For the past eight years, I’ve lived in German houses, and the typical German house has no closets whatsoever and the bathroom storage, if there is any, is laughable.

As I understand it, homeowners are taxed based on the number of rooms in a house, and a closet is considered a room, no matter how small. A laundry room, however, even one so big as mine which is the size of a medium bedroom, is not a room because it’s “unfinished,” since the walls aren’t all pretty and smooth with wallpaper or beautiful paint, and the pipes are exposed on the walls and ceiling. Go figure. I’d be happy with an “unfinished” closet, thank you very much, and I’m slightly surprised that the Germans haven’t figured out that loophole yet. The pipes sticking out of the wall could double as wall hooks or closet poles.

Seriously though, I’ve spent the last eight years searching out creative storage solutions that don’t cost a bundle, but look half way decent, which is a pretty tall order really. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished that JC Penney could deliver bookshelves and dressers Priority Mail. Instead of something nice that I might like to keep for a long time, I end up with this kind of junk, just to have something to use that’s better than nothing at all and doesn’t cost a small fortune.

Amy at MomAdvice penned a post that caught my eye this morning as well. I laughed a little at this one too, since I did spend a huge amount of time decluttering my house before the move, but the big holes I have in the house now are more because I have 30-40% more space here than I did in the other house than because I got rid of anything. And I do have holes; as a matter of fact, I have an entire room that I don’t really know what to do with.

The room on the side of my studio, dubbed “the Library” since that’s where we thought most of the books were going to live, is kind of purpose-less at the moment. We’d also planned to put the sofa bed in there if family every came to visit. (snort. Like THAT will ever happen.) The majority of the books ended up elsewhere with Plan B, some in the dining room and some in the office, and since I’m not anticipating a horde of relatives at my door, well, there it sits, a fairly big, empty hole in the house.

I didn’t really mean to take over nearly a third of the house…

Every morning I walk in there and think, “Wow, the natural light in here is just wonderful” and every afternoon I wander in there and enjoy the relatively cool temperature when my studio is feeling like an oven, and it’s only the middle of May. The lighting is better in there all afternoon as well, probably because it’s a smaller room and the light reflects off of the white walls. So what’s a girl to do? Start moving furniture, of course!

And even if I eventually resort to purchasing an air conditioner to keep from baking up here come August, it’s cheaper and easier to climate control a smaller room as opposed to this wide open studio. Come to think of it, keeping warm in the winter will probably be easier as well. And the Library Little Studio has something else the Studio doesn’t have: a door to close off noise from the rest of the house when I really need some quiet, and keep the cats away from my work if needed.

Oh, the irony of it all: I have a 450 square foot studio, and I’m moving part of my work area into the 126 square foot cubby hole/annex on the side. It’s kind of a bummer when what you think is going to be so perfectly wonderful doesn’t turn out that way in reality. I really can’t fit everything in the Little Studio, so obviously this is an expansion rather than a wholesale move. I didn’t really mean to take over nearly a third of the house, but it seems I’m about to do just that. I feel no guilt though, it’s all in the name of comfort and functionality…

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When Paula talked about her homemade Big Board topper, I told ITMan that he might have to help me make one. BUT, I did have some reservations about the whole thing, since my old German wooden board is kind of tiny and I was worried that the whole thing would be unstable, not to mention that I could probably wait for a really long time before ITMan would get to it in the first place.

Anyway, I scrapped the idea when we moved. The owner left her board here for us to use if we wanted it, and it was a really wonderful specimen from Leifheit that had an attached iron rest and even a power socket on the board itself. I went on the hunt for an even bigger, better model, and found the perfect thing. It’s big, it’s beautiful, and far and away the most stylish ironing board I’ve ever owned: the Leifheit Dressfix Plus.

Here she is in all her plaid covered glory, next to the old board:

Notice that instead of a standard shape, it tapers asymetrically so that there is a longer straight edge, perfect for pressing yardage or quilt tops. There’s also a movable iron rest with an attached power socket and cord minder. The iron plugs into the rest, and the rest plugs into the wall, which leaves more cord length available to travel with ease over the wide open spaces of the board.

To add to the list of lovely features, this baby is a mile high. I’m tall, and I was always bending over the other board to get up close and personal with intricate pressing tasks. The new board saves my back because it’s about eight inches taller than the old one! At the highest setting it’s right at low waist level for me, which is perfect.

Seemingly well made, it should last quite a while, if not forever. I told ITMan that when he (predictably) asked “And how much was that thing?!?” It’s all in the name of comfort and functionality, my dear.

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