We're Moving!

It's been so hard not to share this, but we're moving! Things progressed much quicker than we expected, but we are thrilled.

I'd love to tell you that we are setting up home in Paris or Tokyo... but we're staying put here, in the little village that could - Munich (at least for now - who knows what the future holds).

Our beautiful new apartment is an alt-bau (old building) with tons of character, creaky wooden floors, spacious rooms with high ceilings, and a beautiful little balcony off the kitchen. It gets tons of sun light, which gives me hope that I can rival my Mom's herb garden. Not only that, it's in our same neighborhood, so parting ways with our home won't be so difficult.

While we were back in the US, I constantly saw beautiful pieces of art that I wished so desperately to have wall space for. On every shopping expedition I would say, 'we need more walls!'

I have a great collection and love for art - from my beloved Joe Sorren 'Portrait of Emily', to the piece from our wedding, prints from etsy, antique maps, and zillions of photos from our travels.

And to add to my collection, my parents gifted me the beautiful 'States United' print from etsy's Beauchamping. It's a thoughtful reminder of my home - and it's even heart shaped, just like Ohio, 'the heart of it all'.

Now all we need are more guests!

Roger

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about interior design and redecorating as we consider moving. The most important part, being the apartment, hasn't been decided upon... but I still plan what I would like to do with the space when I have it.

Stefan gets annoyed with my collection of design magazines and I confess it is time to part with them. I tear out the things that I like and neatly organize them into transparent folios for future reference so the magazines don't take up space.

While looking through the pages, I came across an ad about there not being enough art in our schools and it said 'no wonder people think Caravaggio is a guy on the Sopranos'. The art enthusiast in me makes me read the entire ad, agree, and then think back to my own art education, which I absolutely loved.

My entire life I have been blessed with interesting characters as art teachers. They are usually an eccentric bunch with right brained mentalities. I even had a theory growing up that tempera paint had something to do with pregnancy, because my elementary school went through so many art teachers who became pregnant and moved on.

Something I miss about attending a university are the dynamic professors. Of course they are few and far between, but once you have class with them you never forget. My philosophy of art professor has had so many professions in his life including aerospace engineer, patent lawyer, and professor. He also had fascinating stories about growing up in an orphanage, having a best friend there that murdered his entire family, teaching himself to read, surviving a plane crash, nearly going blind 'so everything looks like a Monet painting' - it goes on and on.

His lectures were always filled with random comments, like 'if I were a homosexual I'd say Michelangelo's David was pretty well hung', or stating that in college 'you party and have fun, but then you search for something more to life, which is when you find art'. I would always write down his strange quotes along side my notes.

Needless to say I went on to double major in art education and art history. It was my art history teachers in college that I loved the most. They were personable, creative, articulate, and very observant. Even with their PhD's, they always insisted you call them by their first names.

One of the best teacher's I've ever had was Roger. He was studying to be a lawyer when he decided to take an art history course and then found his true calling. He always would remind us to stop and consider who the patrons were and how ideas and materials were transfered through trade routes. We would discuss the processes of making art and paint during the Renaissance versus today and there was never a dull moment.

So as I looked at this Caravaggio ad and think back to Roger, since his specialty is Italian art. Now it seems ironic to me to look at interior design magazines knowing I will most likely pick the majority of furnishings, upholstery, and decorations, while the paper trail leads back to my husband. Sometimes I have to laugh at how history repeats.

I love art history's ability to connect cultures and time periods, which unites humanity in the search for what life is about.

Interestingly there are many replicas of Michelangelo's David around the world, including the one above, which we were surprised to see in Copenhagen. I'm sure he never imagined his works would be replicated and made into kitschy tourist mementos.

Now I'll have to send that ad to Roger.

Moving on

It looks like Stefan and I will soon begin the search for a more grown up apartment. I already have the letterpress 'we've moved' cards ready... now is the task of finding the perfect place, or at least perfect for now place.

I think back to being unsure of just where we would live and how I was delighted to see an urban apartment in Berlin that was in an old chocolate factory... unfortunately we were never able to call that home. I'm surprised we've been in this apartment for so long!

I love our location in Munich - we are close to the S-Bahn and U-Bahn and quite central. While deep down I covet some kind of hip pre-fab style or renovated home, with loads of space for letterpress printing or doing creative things, I am certain we will be doing the apartment thing for some time.

We really love living in the city, whether it is Munich or elsewhere. I think that's been a crucial aspect for me to enjoy living in Germany and being able to feel comfortable navigating the city and having more options for things to do. It definitely helps to be independent and not feel obligated to drive on the autobahn.


Decorating is something that excites me. I'm not certain that we'll be able to do tons of painting since Germans prefer white walls and we'll be renting, but I'm sure that I'll be able to find creative ways to add color.

Ideally we'd like an apartment that is modern, or an 'alt bau' (old building) with an elevator and loads of light. I've been collecting photos of things that I'd love to have at some point in my life. Dwell has tons of drool worthy images. My favorite is the house above in Brooklyn. And this one in Dayton, Ohio.

Moving is an interesting process in Germany. You don't simply find a place that you like and tell the realtor to take it off the market. I've heard horror stories of people saying things like 'I'm not certain if our furniture will fit' or 'I wish the living room was a tad bigger' and then they have disqualified themselves. This is a serious process. I'm hoping since we want something just slightly bigger than what we now have that there will be more options.

So this summer we'll be packing up and finding a new place to call home - how exciting and daunting. I remember helping our friends Dirk + Constanze move into their four storey walkup last year. I'd prefer to not repeat that nightmare. I'll try to focus on the positive aspects during this new chapter of our lives and all of the decorating possibilites.