Snow-less: spoken a day too soon

Ironically (regarding the opening of my last blog post), I woke up this morning to this...

It's been snowing all day and temperatures are forcasted to drop to 12 degrees later this week.  Oh dear.  Uggs...check, earmuffs...check!  Its officially winter in Lux!

Love from (freezing) Luxembourg...Melanie

Pinterest Craze

God has been good to this Southern girl this Luxembourg winter.  We have had no snow to speak of and the temperature hasn't even really dropped below freezing...so far.  Though it has been a gray January (those who warned us were correct), Alex and I are still in love with little Luxembourg as we move into our 10th month here.

Its funny what you fill your life with when you suddenly have so much free time.  Thanks to Alex and his honey-do lists, I have very busy days quite often :)  (Right now, I'm working on getting travel visas for our upcoming St. Petersburg, Russia trip!) I also try to be intentional with the time that I've been given here and am so thankful that I have hours to give away.  This week, I was fortunate enough to take a sweet friend wedding dress shopping. I got to watch some cute kiddos while their moms met for Bible study.  Alex and I hosted a Dave Ramsey course.  And then there's...Pinterest.

Pinterest, however not falling into the "intentional" category, is addictive; as if we needed another opportunity to waste time.  But, I will say, it is a way to be creative, to encourage one another, to plan, share ideas, swoon over them and...I LOVE IT!

January has been quite a Pinterest-filled month for Sarah and me and we've felt the need to unleash some creativity.  Are we crafty?  Not exactly a word that I would have used to describe myself...until Pinterest came along!  Sarah and I have dedicated a few days this week and last week to a few crafts that we either found on Pinterest or came up with once the creativity started flowing in us.  Here are a few of our final products.

Wooden wedding date numbers...
I saw some adorable, beat up wooden numbers months ago at a little shop in Trier, Germany.  They were about 10 euros each so...not cheap to get 5 numbers for my wedding date.  When Sarah and I saw the plain wooden numbers in the craft store down the street, I knew what I wanted to do with them. Sarah and I painted the numbers a fantastic turquoise color and then sanded the edges and corners a bit to make them look old.  Though I wish the numbers were larger, here's the final product hung up beside some wedding photos on our living room wall...

And here they are up close...



Mercury-like glass...
I love mercury glass but for some reason, I don't have any.  After seeing a DIY mercury glass project on Pinterest, Sarah and I got started on some bottles.  After a quick raid of the glass recycling bin downstairs, (not exactly dumpster diving :) I had a few bottles in different shapes and sizes that I imagined would look perfect on top of our TV armoire in the living room.  Sarah and I painted the glass silver and, voila!  Though the jars got scraped a little in transit from Sarah's, I don't mind the little lines and like the way the look on top of the armoire!

Initial frames...

I found these small oval frames at an antique / consignment furniture store down the street called Troc.  AKA - a place for a fantastic treasure hunt.  I LOVE this store and visit frequently as people bring in new "treasures" every day.  When I bought the frames, they contained old screen painted birds on silky fabric straight from 1970.  Despite the horrendous birds (and no offense - I love birds - just not these birds) I saw such potential in these frames so I bought them for 3 euros each.  I had no idea what I was going to do with my purchase but...what a deal! :)  1 meter of darling corduroy fabric, a bit of burlap and a few tiny wooden letters later my project was finished.  The initial frames are without a home on our wall as of now but here they are...Alex & Melanie.

Last, but certainly not least, I'll show you Sarah's main project.  Sarah bought wooden (napkin) rings, some burlap, a roll of twine and wooden "Q" letters.  We had the idea to cover the napkin rings in burlap and secure it with glue, then tie twine around the ring and hang the now-painted letter "Q" from each ring.  Adorable, right?  Well, turns out that the burlap didn't cooperate so we wrapped each ring in twine and by the end of 27 Dresses, we had six twine covered napkin rings with a cute little "Q" dangling in front.  Sarah is officially ready for her next dinner party...

What fun craft days we had!  Now back to my honey-do list :)

Love from Luxembourg...Melanie

Christmas market-ing

Sarah and I recently decided that we liked the idea of going into a career of "marketing."  Christmas marketing, that is :)

I'd heard of the elaborate celebrations in Luxembourg and most European cities around Christmas time but I had no idea to the extent that Christmas was celebrated here.  Beginning the week after Thanksgiving, city centers and major squares all over Europe transform into winter wanderlands. Rows and rows of little wooden stalls are brought in to house everything from mulled wine to gingerbread to Christmas ornaments and other gifts.  The set up, complete with lights, decadent smells and live music is still very similar to what the markets looked like hundreds of years ago.  The first Christmas market took place in Nuremberg, Germany and dates back to the 16th century.  Though we didn't make it to Nuremberg this year (its just over 4 hours away from Lux), we did hit 4 other markets and brought back commemorative mulled wine (hot, spiced wine) mugs as souveniers.

Here are a few photos from the Luxembourg Christmas market in Place d'Armes - one block from our apartment...

And here are photos from Trier, Germany's market, which was adorable!  We caught the train to Trier with our friends Kristy and Jacques and met other friends, Christie and Eddie at the market...

With Jacques and Kristy

Gingerbread!

Because Alex and I were headed to the States in mid-December for Christmas, we were running out of time to see more of the markets on our list.  Strassbourg, France is known to have one of the best markets in Europe so Sarah and I decided that a girls' trip was in order.  Conveniently, an old client of mine was on tour in Germany and performing 30 minutes from Strassbourg in Offenburg, just over the German border.  Sarah and decided that meant the trip was meant to be!

We took off early on the morning of the concert and made the 2 hour drive to Strassbourg.  Though we weren't the only ones who thought to travel to Strassbourg on that Wednesday (it was jam packed!), the market and city surpassed our every expectation.  We were so incredibly happy that we made the trip and didn't miss out on what we think must be one of the best markets, indeed.  Here are a few photos from the Strassbourg market...

The Strassbourg market with the grandest cathedral I've ever seen in the background

The magnificient cathedral

A shot of the store fronts, which were all decked to the nine's for Christmas

Another store front decorated with a cute, gigantic gingerbread man

My partner in crime

When Sarah and I returned with big eyes and great tales from Strassbourg, Alex decided that he had to see this place before we headed home.  We had one day to do this so we also drove to the magical city the weekend before our US departure.  Alex loved Strassbourg and the market there just as much as Sarah and I did.  Here are a few more photos from my trip with Alex...



One of the many canals running through the city

Needless to say, Alex and I will be going back to Strassbourg.  It will also be put on the list of places to take guests when we have more visitors :) 

Though I'm so happy to have made it home to Atlanta and Nashville for Christmas, I'm so glad that I was able to experience a little bit of a European Christmas a few weeks before we left.  It was special indeed!  Hope y'all had the merriest Christmas!

With Love from Luxembourg...Melanie

A Thanksgiving Feast!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Alex and I planned a big Thanksgiving feast / Birthday party for last weekend.  We wanted to celebrate Alex's birthday, as well as our friends Jacques, Nollaig and Valerie's special days, which were all at the end of November.  We also wanted to show our friends here (from Luxembourg and all over the world) what an American Thanksgiving was like. 

I cooked all day on Friday and Saturday preparing the turkey - my first ever (brave, I know, with 30 mouths on the way :) homemade cranberry sauce, green beans, glazed carrots, a 3-layer strawberry cake (for the birthday cake) and two pumpkin pies.  I'd asked everyone else to bring one other item to share and gave a few suggestions since this was almost everyone's first Thanksgiving.  Our home was full and the evening was just wonderful!  Here are a few photos...

Hopefully I don't get in trouble for posting this one.  Definitely the first time I've seen Alex in an apron but he was an excellent turkey carver :)

Mr. Turkey (a huge thanks to Sarah for her help getting this bird oven-ready :)

The Spread

Sarah and her turkey leg :)

The birthday girls and boys with their cake

I wish I'd taken a group photo but with all that was going on, I didn't get around to it.

I think everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving and it brought me joy to be able to share the special day with our "family" here since I was away from home.  Now, the countdown is on until I board a plane on the 13th for Christmas - destination USA!

Love from Luxembourg...Melanie

A castle, caves and...wild pigs?!

I think its every little girls' dream to spend the night in a castle.  So, I was delighted to receive word from my new friend (and castle owner) Brigitte that the Prieure de Bonvaux B&B had availability for the weekend! 

Prieure de Bonvaux (Dijon, France)

Every year, the tiny French town of Beaune (in the Bourgundy region) has an enormous wine festival after harvest to kick off the holiday season.  Alex and I had been planning on making the trip for months with the Queens and we were excited that two other couple friends of ours joined us as well.  A fantastic quadrouple date it was!

When we arrived at our castle in Dijon (30 minutes from Beaune and yes, the city of mustard) on Friday, we were greeted by the adorable Brigitte.  The first thing Brigitte said to me (after her welcome) was, "See the grass?"  "Do you know what that is?"  She was pointing to the torn up grass around the castle.  "Wild pigs!" She said enthusiastically.  "Wild pigs?!" I said, sure that she had gotten some of her Engish words mixed up.  But no.  Brigitte continued to explain to us that wild pigs come out at night around the castle (did I mention we were in the middle of the country?) and they had destroyed her yard.  Cute Brigitte then told me not to worry, she'd invited a hunter-friend of hers out to take care of them and he shot 9 wild pigs in one night!  My castle dreams were beginning to diminish for fear of being eaten by a wild boar. 

After the story of the wild pigs, Brigitte casually showed us into our bedroom and I temporarily forgot about the pigs.  Here's the royal chamber where Alex and I got to stay.  I know...I'm officially spoiled.

Here's a picture of our crew eating breakfast in the castle. Brigitte woke up before us to go into town to pick up fresh bread.  So sweet!

Sarah and Chris, Alex, Jacques and Kristy and Bertrand and Nollaig

Our plans for the day in Beaune consisted of one particular wine tasting in a cave called Patriarche.  The tour took us four hours because they offered 10 tastings of wine dating from 2009 back to 1959.  Of course, the 1959 wine was my favorite and it was only 369 Euros a bottle :) Needless to say, Alex and I left Patriarche without a making a purchase.  The tasting was a blast, though; the highlight of the trip. 

Bottles of wine dating back to...a long, long time ago :)

Dear friends Nollaig and Sarah

The cute boys - Bertrand, Jacques, Alex and Chris

After the tasting, we had a nice dinner down the street in Beaune where Beef Bourguignon and Coq au vin rouge (Chicken in red wine sauce) were the local dishes. The little town was hopping with people, Christmas lights, food booths and mulled wine (though the last thing we wanted after a 4 hour tasting :)

It was a fantastic weekend and the eight of us decided that the trip to the festival should be an annual event.  Here's one final picture of the crew in front of our castle.  With a little more practice, I think I can get used to this sleeping in a castle business :) 

Love from Luxembourg...Melanie



Full of Thanks

This is my second Thanksgiving abroad (the first being in China 10 years ago) and, again, it is a strange feeling to wake up and know that today is just a regular Thursday to everyone else in Luxembourg.  Clearly, they don't celebrate the holiday so everyone is working and turkeys are impossible to find at the grocery store.  Thanks to the American Women's Club, however, I was able to order my very own 11lb Butterball (frozen) turkey!

Because Alex's birthday was also this week, we are going to host a big Thanksgiving feast / Birthday celebration this Saturday.  All of our European friends are very curious about this Thanksgiving that the Americans celebrate so we're going to have a full house.  Hopefully our apartment can hold 30 people (and the tiny oven can hold Mr. Butterball :)  I will fully document Saturday's Thanksgiving / Birthday celebration one day next week!

On this Thanksgiving Day, I have so much to be thankful for... 
I'm thankful for a precious family back home who loves me and misses me. 
I'm also so grateful that I have a plane ticket home for Christmas in just over 2 weeks! 
I'm thankful for a husband who has made our first year of marriage the best year of my life. 
I'm thankful for friends both here in Luxembourg and back in the US (we'll come back, I promise :) 
I'm thankful for an opportunity of a lifetime to make my home in lovely Luxembourg for a few years.
I'm thankful for my health.
I'm thankful for the unconditional love of a Savior who gave his life for mine.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! 

With love from Luxembourg...Melanie

Tales of a visit from Ms. Connie

Clearly, I have no excuses for the delay.  I can't believe its been so long since my last post but I'm back with news of recent adventures in this little Luxembourg of mine :) 

The day after Alex and I returned from Italy, we had a very special visitor!  Alex's mom (AKA Ms. Connie) arrived from Tulsa, all smiles - and seemingly without jetlag - ready to hit the ground running in Luxembourg!  And that we did! 

A few hours after Ms. Connie's arrival, we piled in the car and headed through the beatiful countryside toward Vianden's Walnut Festival.  Vianden is a cute little Luxembourgish town north of the city that is best known for two things - the annual Walnut Festival and its huge castle...

Vianden Castle

Over the next few days, Alex and I were able to give Ms. Connie a grand tour of Luxembourg - the countryside, the Grund, the City Centre and the vineyards - in addition to taking her on a few day trips to Belgium and Germany.  Here are a few pictures from our travels.  The first, is perhaps my favorite...

Dinant, Belgium

Luxembourg's bi-weekly market

Luxembourg's vineyards

Cochem, Germany

Cochem = Adorable!

One of my favorite things we did during our road-tripping with Ms. Connie, was a cruise down Germany's Rhine River.  The tiny towns that dot the coast of the Rhine River are quaint and lovely.  The river cruise we chose took us from the town of St. Goar, Germany to Bacharach and we saw castles galore!

Perhaps our most amusing part of the cruise was our encounter with a German bowling club.  It was noon, they were several drinks in and they were having a jolly good time.  Ms. Connie and I even got serenaded (in German, of course :)

A few from the top of one of the many castles

Many castles later, our trio returned to Luxembourg to spend a few more days with Ms. Connie before she headed home.  What a fun week and a half it was!  We covered most of Luxembourg and numerous cute towns in Germany and Belgium.  I think Ms. Connie quite enjoyed herself, as did I!

Love until next time...Melanie