Advent in Vienna

 

 

 

It´s the time of the year that the City of  Vienna prepares for its

 traditional Advent... 

 

St. Stephansdome attracts more tourists to go out even in the evening

 to watch the spectacular street lights being turned on today

 to commemorate the  1st Sunday of Advent. 

 

 

And so I`m sharing with you some pics in and around the Dome

for you to see the happenings in our city center.

 Enjoy the shots!

 

The pottted pointsettia at home are now in full bloom and in time for

the Advent celebration.

 

 The Christkindl Markt at the  Dome´s Plaza has been opened to public

about two weeks now. 

 

 

A mass was being celebrated when I went inside the St.Stephen´s
 Cathedral  to light up candles for the departed loved ones..

 

 

 

 

Candles for our departed loved ones.

 

 

 

 

 

The Dome as we know it every Christmas season..

 

 

 The entrance to the Dome with beamers

 

Christkindl Markt in the Dome´s Plaza, where the traditional "Glühwein"
is also served. Just a note .... Glühwein is a heated punch made of  red wine,
 orange juice, cloves cinnamon, sugar, etc...

 

 

 

Confiserie shop- windows are now full of  displays as having
 them is a must for the  locals and tourists as well.

This is a stall at the Christkindl Markt at the Dome.


 

Gothic facade of the St. Stephen´s Cathedral



 

East Tower of the Cathedral


 

 

 

A fave flower shop just vis a vis the East Tower of the Dome...

 

HAVE A HAPPY  AND A MEANINGFUL

 1st SUNDAY OF THE ADVENT !!!

 

 

past challenges - minerals & copper

Sharing with you a few of the jewelries I made out of minerals and copper.

 Minerals are fun to work with. It is one of the crafts that I enjoy making

because you can finish a piece in just one sitting and you see the

results right away

  

The Malachite I used in this necklace came from Nigeria.

I just added more and bought the smaller ones in Vienna.

 Lapis lazuli and corals.

The corals were from another necklace that I dismantled and included

here as a contrast to the blue tones of Lapis lazuli..

Sponge corals 

The pendant was discovered in a flea market and I used it to add

 character  to this necklace.

Various agate, tiger´s eye, and other minerals

The main material was found at a bazaar in Spain, dismantled  and I used copper

to connect each piece... I made the closure out of copper wire too.

  

This was an experimental work, I was trying to create a unique piece by
 turning and hammering the wire....
 I guess, it turned out beautifully, if I may say so.

 That´s just about for now, I hope everyone´s enjoying the Weekend!

Til next,

Mercy

Shared at: 

Six Sisters Stuff
Life on Lakeshore Drive

My Guest Blogger - Eva ( of Home Decor by Eva)

Hi everyone! I am Eva from Home Decor by Eva and am glad to be Mercy's guest at Challenging Arts and Crafts.

 I want to share my views on decorating with curtains, as they really help brighten up the room and of course provide late risers undisturbed sleep.
 Happy Reading!

Choosing the Right Blackout Curtains!

Blackout curtains first made their appearance during the Second World War, when showing a light at night meant giving enemy bombers a clear and inviting target. It was vital that every chink of light was concealed and that no sign of life was visible from the outside. There were even wardens who would walk around towns and villages at night to make sure that every house was tightly sealed. Following the war, and the relaxation of such rules, people opted for colourful, pretty curtains, rather than the sombre black blackout curtains.

Modern manufacturing techniques mean that we can now enjoy a fabulous variety of patterns, colours and textures in our curtains: from those with an attractive broad bottom stripe that lengthens the room and calls admiring attention to eye-catching patterns that turn heads on entry to the room. Blackout curtains from Yorkshire Linen are a good choice if looking for various colours and textures, rather than the old fashioned thick and heavy black fabrics that used to be necessary to cut out the light. 

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Blackout curtains have made something of a comeback, especially in countries subject to widely variable seasons. Being able to get to sleep at nine o'clock in winter is no problem, but in the height of summertime this can mean that the sun is still blazing down! Closing the curtains and casting the room into darkness is a tremendous help in being able to sleep at such an early hour! For this reason many parents use blackout curtains in their children's nurseries and bedrooms, Target has a good children s variety to help little ones get off to sleep at a good hour, rather than only after darkness has fallen. Night workers and people who work swing shifts also benefit greatly from blackout curtains, being able to shut out the daylight and get a good 'night's' sleep! 

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Blackout curtains generally do not only block light. Quite often the very thickness of the curtains, which generally have a thick lining as well as the thick visible fabric, can work to block out draughts and chills in extremely cold weather, and also work to muffle outside noises.

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My husband used to work nights and would go to be at about seven o'clock in the morning, waking at around three or four in the afternoon. Initially, we had a pair of light blue, standard curtains, which let in a lot of light and all the noise from the neighbours! In winter, my husband could sleep fairly well, as the children tended to play indoors, and the meagre sunlight was on the other side of the house. In summer, not only did he have to contend with shouting children and roaring strimmers and lawn-mowers, he had full blazing sunshine lighting up the bedroom for most of the morning!

We got some blackout curtains as soon as we found out about them and the difference was amazing! Our bedroom was cast into complete darkness, and was so quiet that we could hear our own breathing! As our bedroom is wallpapered in pale pick textured wallpaper we chosen rich dark red fabric which adds a wonderful rosy glow to the interior!

 

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Blackout curtains are excellent devices as they can ensure that everyone in the home can sleep properly and deeply while at rest. Scientists have found that too much light, noise or even too great a temperature fluctuation can disturb sleep. With the wide and beautiful range of attractive blackout curtains available today, you can have your perfect interior and look after the health of your family at the same time!
 

 

Easy Pumpkin Strudel

Pumpkin Strudel

My godness,  I´ve just realized that pumpkin is so versatile after gathering all those  yummy & delicious  pumpkin recipes from  wonderful bloggers from various social media. I will try to sort out those recipes and try them sometime...

Meanwhile, here is what I baked today, I´ve been wanting to do this one....It´s a deviation of the popular viennese dessert "Apfelstrudel"... Instead of apples, I used pumpkin to fill the roll... here´s how I made it..

Ingredienst 

 

1 pack phylo/puff pastry - frozen or fresh
200 g diced and steamed pumpkin, butternut or hokkaido sort
250 g curd cheese
1 egg yolk
6 tbsp flour
120 g sugar or 6 tbsp stevia powder
1 tbsp grated Lemon rind
4 tbsp dried coconut flakes
1 cup red currant marmalade or jam
caster sugar to springkle on the strudel
 

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat the oven at  180°C. Smash the pumpkin with either the back of a fork or use a stabmixer to crush the pumpkin, blend thoroughly until a fine consistency is achieved. Add the curd cheese, egg yolk, the flour, the sugar, the coconut flakes and the rind of lemon, blend well... set aside.

 2. Roll out the phylo pastry without removing the wax paper... spread the squash mixture on to the phylo pastry evenly leaving 2 cm allowance on all sides..

3. With the help of the wax paper, roll the phylo pastry carefully towards the other end as in jelly-roll and close the middle edge as well as the sides by brushing them with water and pressing them slightly with your finger.

4. Bake in a pre-heated oven of 180 °C for about 50 minutes to 1 hour.
To  prevent the top of the pastry from getting dark, cover it with an aluminum foil or wax paper after the first 30 minutes of baking, then remove the foil after  20 minutes. Continue to bake for 10 minutes more  to make the crust crispier.


5. Remove from oven and sprinkle with caster sugar and top with red currant marmalade that was heated beforehand in the microwave.
Serve warm or cold... 


HAPPY BAKING!

a parade of pillowcases and laces

  

One of the fave things I´m into nowadays is white pillowcases, made some a couple of weeks ago. 

Yeah, I´ve collected a few already, it all started during my  holiday when I brought home a very pretty tablecloth and a pillowcase made by the women of Cyprus. They make pretty laces and in every town we visited, women have had their lace work done outside the house, so to speak in  their patios and sometimes these women sell their works directly right at their doorsteps...

I love to put up all the pillows when the bed is not in used, that  way it gives a romantic touch to the whole room..

 The tablecloth from Cyprus is big enough to cover the bed  and sometimes I use it as bedcover in the guest bedroom.  The crochet skirt is actually a  tablecloth which I also use to  give pretty decor effect to the bed when not in use. I made it some  20 years  back  when I commuted by train to work..

Some of the white pillowcases I have were handdowns   from "Oma", hubby´s grandma... She was an avid crafter like me,  she loved to embroider her pillowcases and I guess am lucky to  have inherited all her works. 

I found a pair of white pillowcases with monograms from  a fleamarket organized by schoolchildren in our vicinity,  lucky find though( see below photo)  ´cause the price tag was really  just a fraction of a cost, giveaways as such!

This is the center of the Cyprus tablecloth......

..... and the edge lacing on all sides.

A pillowcase from Cyprus

 A friend´s gift for my birthday

I got this from a fleamarket dealer for 0,50 Euro cents. To think of the work

involved in crocheting a simple lace like this.. it is not only a bargain, it´s a treasure..

 I made this one, I wanted to put an embroidered piece in  the center

 but later changed my mind and crocheted the middle part and stitched

 this onto the main pillowcase by hand..

Oma´s masterpiece using the richelieu embroidery  technique, cutting

 out the outline after embroidery was done and attached a piece of  what looked like a net as background of the whole work... it is indeed a piece of art!

 I´ve finally decided to finish the above pair during the last  couple  of weeks... Actually they were hand quilted by me as well  as lace edges were crocheted long beforehand.  The crocheted edges  were  intended to be laces for a bed canopy that I wanted to make, but it  did not materialize because I opted to use a different fabric for  the canopy panels... I will still continue to add to this collection and hope to find more treasures like these...

I hope everyone´s doing good and enjoying Sunday.. 

Wishing you all to have a good start of the week!!!

Til next,

Mercy

the flowers in my backyard - 2013

 

All of these flowers have been my inspiration all summer long..  

 

 

 

 

I made bouquets out of them to decorate my home. 

 

 

I´ve planted some bulbs in the autumn of 2012 and they

came out  wonderfully this year...if  only the slugs weren´t

  in  my backyard :-(

 

 

  

I´ve had tulips in spring, amaryllis from Spain, potted lilies, forsythia, 

hibiscus and  my dog´s yellow roses as well...

 

I ´ve had squash flowers too!!!... as well as some potted violets and

some I don´t even know what the names were except that I loved them the

moment I saw them at the garden center...

 

 

 

The most fragrant of  all are the yellow roses, the potted lilies as well

as the honeysuckle

 

 

I´ll have fond memories of these flowers especialy in a gloomy day

 of autumn when the skies are gray.  I hope these photos  made you smile....

Til next...

 

Mercy