Favourite Words in February

• - innenschön. Noun, German. Hard to translate (it’d be “insidepretty”, but that just doesn’t have the same feeling to it) this word has its origin at Natron’s. It describes a minor detail on the inside of a piece of clothing that only reveals its beauty to the wearer.
• - fantabulous. Adjective, English. Something to describe Jules’ style goal.
• - enthrall. Verb, English. Beautiful, but a bit looming.
• - monoceros. Noun, Greek. Also the name of a constellation, the unicorn.
• - myrtille. Noun, French. Blueberries, and also a good name for a pet.

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On a different notice: I completely missed my blog anniversary. That’s four years of Teaparties & Fairytales now. Wow. Thanks for still reading, you are lovely!
Also, the move to the new flat is going quite well, I’ll keep you updated a bit more often now – I had absolutely no idea where my card reader was lately, so I bought a new one yesterday when I was out to get an electric kettle. Now this is finally starting to feel like home.
Last but not least, today’s the 200th anniversary of the publication of the Brothers Grimm’s first fairy tale collection. Happy Birthday, Kinder- und Hausmärchen!

Sartorial Saturday: Sometimes You Don’t

You don’t find the right outfit, you don’t get the right location, you don’t have the nerve to search the whole town for a quiet place to use your self-timer, you don’t like how you look anyway.

But then, just when you’re tired and want to simply use the blurry pictures you took in a hurry, a little bit of fairy tale happens and you find that wonderful old armchair right in front of your house at the edge of the world.
This may not be a perfect Sartorial Saturday, but it has heart and soul and captures my life in a fairy tale town quite perfectly. It should be like this more often.

Outfit Rundown:

- T-Shirt: C&A
- longsleeve: H&M
- skirt: self-made
- tights: drugstore
- shoes: Danish Duckfeet
- scarf (not pictured): C&A
- fingerless gloves: sheep farm nearby

Accessoires Rundown:

- flower hairclip: self-made by Teli
- ring necklace: vintage (from my mother)
- earrings (bug and creole): H&M and Bijou Brigitte

Thanks to Scoundrel for turning up when I was about to give up and for taking these wonderfully whimsical pictures.

Sadly my small chamber is already stuffed so I couldn’t take this pretty piece of furniture in, but as I know my town it’ll give me another one when the time and space is right.

Anybody need a new chair?

Favourite Words In September

Only English words today, I don’t know why… anyway:

1. Haberdashery – Isn’t that word and his content great?
2. Twirl – It sounds so warm and green with a little orange to me… and a little off-white.
3. Pig – I like pigs and I like the word. What more to say?
4. Cradle – An old-fashioned one, of course. Maybe with a sheepskin in it, maybe made of woven willow, with a baldachin or wheels.
5. Enchanted – I originally wanted to pick disenchanted but I found it to dark and sad for a list like the above. ^^

Top Hat Plans and Fairy Shirts

As I said before there are no pictures of me during the weekend I could show you. But what I can show you are pictures of Bambi and Jules and the shirt I made for the latter.

Bambi, spending the weekend pirately. Arrr.

During the festival, Jules and the Scoundrel came up with the idea of top hats with drawers – and instantly looked at me. Being seen as someone who is able to craft about everything is really flattering sometimes. ^^
Somehow, I liked the idea, and as I wanted to sew a felt top hat for myself this late summer anyway, I’ll surely try.

Jules is in sepia for a reason. First of all, he wore his justaucorps, which nearly forces me to use an effect on the picture, and second, the turquoise of his shirt didn’t match the blue of the jacket in my opinion (but I’m not very fond of turquoise at all). I think the picture shows Jules exalted and flamboyant demeanour pretty well. He’s definitely more laid-back than four years ago.

On the festival day itself – Saturday – he wore not shadows but black shorts, a white shirt, combat boots, the justaucorps and a t-shirt I made for him. It’s somewhat like a coming-out on fabric, and he loved it although I really had to hurry to finish the stencil to the date.

Picture taken by Jules

It’s silver on a white base with pink corners and accents, glittery spots-on-purpose-to-make-it-look-artistic and bright raspberry coloured wings with extra glitter. I really like the symbolism the shirt bears, but that’s a hobby of mine, anyway. Light the way out of the closet with a paper lantern of fairy festivities, ring the bells for radical self-love and announcement of a new era of your life and turn to break new ground!

I also made a top for myself but as it is part of a series I don’t want to show you until the whole project is finished.

The Ivy Fairy

The day before yesterday, when I was in the garden with Simon and the Imp, we kidded around with one of the ivy wreaths and this Historian, Simon’s flat mate, took pictures with this result:

It was already pretty dark in the staircase at this time, so the photo has been shot without flash and portraits my skin a little darker – aka. healthier ^^ – than normal, but I like the picture very much.

Sadly, there’s is nothing like a Ivy Fairy in the Flower Fairies. :)

Indeed, this is kind of the first “product” from my garden!

My Secret Garden

Yesterday I got a carrier pigeon from Simon the Kobold with the question if I were familiar with plants.
I told him, yes, I were.
Now I’ve got a garden.

My own! Small, but precious.

It’s right upon the old city walls. The boys let me care for it as they are not very interested in gardening and didn’t even know what to sow there.

At the moment it’s still pretty overgrown with ivy, but there are two shrubs of black currant, a plum tree, peppermint and maybe even some wild strawberries. I can’t wait for the first blossoms to open!

Today, with a little help from Simon and Bertie who came over for a visit, I got rid of a lot of dead wood and even more ivy that choked the other plants. Well, there’s more than enough material for bonfires with bread-on-a-stick and gazing for the milky way now! We even slung the ivy twines to wreaths and hung them up to dry in the shed. Why waste something that you can burn later? The prettiest of these fairy crowns now rests on a window sill in Simon’s staircase (and I wonder how long…).

I also added a new one to the categories, Sally Gardens, which will be the one for all things concerning plants, flowers, gardening and the harvest moon, named after an Irish traditional that is loaded with memories for me.

Even more Snow!

I promised you some more photos of my fairy tale town covered with snow.

Well, it’s not that much of the town but more of my way to university in photos and snow, but it’s fairytale like anyway.

The River Lahn, frozen over.

The path at the riverside is a little bit difficult to walk at the moment, completely covered with a solid hard layer of snow, especially when wearing trainers instead of combat boots (but lacing up would take hours!).

Same bridge, different view.

The bridge across the River Lahn again. When spring has come again I’ll take some pictures from upon the bridge itself, the view is just lovely.

The botanical gardens are a quite weird place at night, especially when tucked in that white blanket. I made a snow angel down at one of the trees and then tiptoed around the old green house that was still lightened.

Well, I had to show at least one picture from town… I love the old doorways in the upper part (we are living exactly at the edge between upper and lower, and the doorways are old here, too.).