portraits from summer...

so what have i done this summer??

I keep thinking whether this summer has been productive or not.. so im gonna list it out..

1. I met a great family from Austria with 2 beautiful children
2. I traveled 11 cities/towns in Italy in 11 days with a good friend
3. I stocked up on vit D
4. I got to meet Zoe in Salerno!
5. I sold my art for the first time
6. I finished the Twilight saga
7. I painted
8. I saw Oasis! with great supporting bands
9. I read Nanny Matilda a book in German
10. I went up to st ands for grad week
11. I did a 250m high top rope thing
12. I fell in love with a country that I never expected to - Austria
13. I went to Tyrol.. seen some of the alps
14. I learnt a lot of austrian cooking
15. I never got stressed or angry or sad once when I was in Austria.. im very chilled these days...
16. The kids made me laugh until my tummy hurt everyday when I was in Austria

... I'll keep thinking... this shall be updated

sooo the last week or so!!

last weekend we had americans staying and we did sooo much touristy things around carinthia! we went top rope climbing, hiking along waterfalls and did some crazy height things.. which i was a bit scared.. but i managed!

this week has been a bit slow.. its been soooo hot here! im tired everyday and the kids are going mental! haha

babysat them 2 nights ago.. maybe my worst night as they wouldnt stop screaming.. Tina this Tina that etc etc! i went a bit nuts.. but it inspired me that night somehow.. I wrote a song in less than 20 minutes.. i was quite pleased.

The kids are really bonding with me these days and Im getting very attached which i dont think is good. The little one is always 'Tina.. where are you!?' in a funny german accent.. 

Im moving out the house on sunday as im staying with the grandparents next week with the kids as well as the mum. It makes the moving easier. So i have to pack this weekend.. kinda starting to kick in that I have to leave this place.. man im gonna miss all of this..

Kinda getting sad now.. haha but ive been soo busyyy doing what i dont even know.. just trying to spend time playing with the kids as much as possible these days.. they are really funny kids.. 

living the weekends..

Last weekend I was in Tyrol, the alps of austria and it was .. beautiful.. 

We stayed at the fathers aunts place and she not only spoilt the kids with lots of sugar goodness but me too.. soo i was very much hyper the entire weekend. We chilled at her house a lot and her 'pond is her swimming' pool.. i was swimming with water lilies.

We hiked up around the hills behind up and saw some very stereotypical alpine landscape.. waterfalls, trees and deers!

We came back from Tyrol on Monday and it has been sooo busy since..

I shall write up these days soon after this weekend.. 2 weeks left here.. im absorbing as much as I can as the family, the country, the landscape is.. beautiful.. I have already made my retirement plans.. :)

busy busy VIENNA!!

Soo these last few days I have been away from the kids and St Kollmanns. From sunday to wednesday I was in Vienna on my own staying with the mum's brother's family. Her brother and girlfriend were really nice and they helped me a lot with my travel plans!

On sunday I arrived in vienna around 1pm and went to schonbrunn palace which was really near to her brother's flat. The palace was gorgeous and I did an audio guide tour and saw 40 rooms in the palace which was spectacular. I walked around the grounds and the plants and views were soo beautiful! 

On monday I went and walked all around district 1 and saw most of the palaces and monuments. It was sooo tiring! I then saw harry potter haha (it started to rain!) bit disappointed with the film, and then later I watched Carmen the opera on the big screen outside the Rathouse.

On tuesday it was raining soo heavily that I decided to do museums! well first in the morning i went to the stadtpark and then later I went to Kunsthistorisches museum.. took me a long time.. and the highlight had to be the Rafael paintings. I managed to get into a viennese coffee shop which was very cutesy. Later at night I went to see the opera the Vogelhandler at the schonnbrunn theater.. apart from that it was all in german and that I struggled with the humours etc I felt I got the idea of the opera. 

But yeah all in all Vienna was a great break from the kids and I felt I was back traveling again.. however it made me missed daz and zoe. 

I will put up the photos later!

Another great news my HOLGA 135 camera has arrived!! and it is beautiful.. its a toy camera what do you expect! im soo excited to start taking film now! enough of this digital crap..

Oh and I am going to Tyrol tomorrow! its near the Alps and we get to drive up some greta mountains! im excited! will be back on monday.. 

This week..

This week has been quite hectic.. we've had a lot of tiring days and nights!

Yesterday we were at a party in a fairy tale castle! it was lovely but there were about 20 odd children and I had to keep my eye out for our boys. The boys went to sleep at 11 the latest ever! and i was exhausted. 

The dad is back and the boys can not keep away from him, currently they are away with the dad somewhere as I have my day off and the mum needs the much needed rest!

I am getting to know the au pair of her sister-in-law's children quite well, she is from wales and is very easy to talk to.

This week the 4 year old seems to be in a mood with me.. but apparently from the mum he has phases like that.. kinda reminds me of myself when I was little! haha 

The 2 year old is always happy but always wants more and everything is his.. ich haben, meine, noch eine are his favourite words! but he is very polite and always says Dankyou! such a sweetheart!

This morning I went for a run.. it was too hot.. but the views were fantastic.

Oh and I have started on some painting and I sketched the little one the other day (see photo)! 

Tuesday 21st - Caves, castles, chill...

We left to the grandparents house and me, the mum and the 4 year old went to a cave. The cave was very small but soo pretty. We then climbed the hill behind, lots of steps. Ended up at a castle ruin site and there was a cafe there. The view was georgeous. 

Life here us soo chilled out, just what I need. The scenery is beautiful.. having tea on the baucany watching the sunset.. I feel like I'm on holiday. The mum is really nice, she's planning a lot if touristy and fun things for all of us to do. 
I've got tomorrow morning off and then we are going swimming in the lake tomorrow again. Instead of beaches we have hills and lakes. Instead of jellyfish we get ticks haha I'm still paranoid both the kids have already had ticks on them. 
Oh and the older boy loves pink.. Everything has to be pink.. plates, cup, toothbrush.. I draw him a picture has to be pink.. I have drawn a lot of pink houses! Its really funny actually.. 
Tomorow morning I am going to start the paintings. What a life eh!