Small animal fair

As I am thinking of packing our bag for our trip to Meilen tomorrow (for some local fish and chips on the beach!), I have just remembered that I haven't blogged about our last trip back to Meilen 2 weeks ago when we went to visit the annual small animal fair. Mr T had already been back in 2011 but I was away at the time, looking after my niece and nephew in Montpellier for 3 weeks some of you may remember.

So this year we headed back to Meilen to visit the fair and have some lunch with our Meilen friends. It is a fairly small affair mostly designed for children who love to come and look at all the rabbits and chickens.

Perhaps because it is designed with children in mind, the local authorities has dressed up the naked statue that stands on the beach in Meilen...only in Switzerland!

Within 10 meters, you can witness the Ugly

the Vicious

and the Impossibly Cute

Any trip to Meilen wouldn't be complete without sitting down to some local produces for lunch (I am sooo looking forward to my fish and chips tomorrow!)

Swiss folklore music included!

Great times :-)

Have local fairs started in your neighbouring with the return of the sunshine?

Sticker fun

Even if Baby Suisse is not quite ready yet, his bedroom is mostly done and looking good if I say so! We have gone for a Jungle/animal theme with the accessories so when we saw these stickers last month we knew we would have them to add some colours to the baby's room (which we have decided not to paint because we are renting and unsure of how long we'll be in this house for).

They are supposedly removable stickers (we'll test that theory when we have to move...) and because the bedroom's walls aren't smooth we applied them to the cupboard doors and the bedroom door turning this

 into this!

Mission accomplished, the white bedroom looks less like a hospital bedroom!

Stickers are still fun as grown ups ;-)

Ta dah!!!

Ladies and gentlemen,

After what felt like the Gobi desert of craft these last few months, I finally have a finished project to reveal!!You may remember that my first handmade dress back in September last year was a labour of love (and frustration) but that thanks to my lovely friend Heather who had guided me step by step the dress was a success and sent me on a crafty high.

The next challenge was going to be recreating the magic on my own this time, not for myself (because of baby bump) but for a friend back in Glasgow whose birthday was in April. Knowing my own sewing limitations (and my patience...), I decided to go for a more simple design for the dress this time to limit the (pardon my French) co** up opportunities. Some tartan light cotton fabric was bought online and THE dress was created over the 4 days Easter weekend:

So yes, it did not go all smoothly and I have learned a lot making that dress so that the next solo project should look slightly less handmade but... I DID IT!! I made a dress on my own!

So now, my poor friend Ashley has to actually be seen in public wearing it...poisoned chalice??

Some actual talent can be here over at Wendy's!

Swiss farmers' fair

My job does have its perks...you may remember last year when I spent an afternoon in the beautiful Emmental region visiting a cheese factory and cattle farms and eating my way through a gigantic cheese and meat platter? Well, I spent last wednesday morning visiting the BEA, the annual Swiss farmers' fair which took place in Bern this year. It is a very popular event that takes place for 10 days and I was lucky to get a free pass through work and decided to get there at 9am to beat the crowd.

The exhibition center in Wankdorf (just outside Bern) is huge and there were many different exhibition halls with different themes. Needless to say I spent a lot of time with the farm animals and near the food stalls! Here's an overview of what you could have spotted at the BEA:

A hair brush for cows

a rather scary 1100kg bull

seriously cute cows

and the proof that cows do actually sleep!

a novel way of "roasting" piglets

and some seriously chic birds

The Swiss horse show was taking place alongside the BEA so you could sit down to watch demonstrations of how clever trained equids can be!

My favourite part though was the dog section where you could spot many of the Swiss dog breeds, most of which are working dogs

Farming is not just about animals and there was a very nice hall decorated with a vegetable landscape that included an artificial river with remote-controlled boats!

There was a small but interesting section with some traditional clothes and crafts

and last but not least, a detour through the food court was compulsory before leaving!

Now, if only every day at work was like this...(sigh)