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[Image]Jill and Stacy I would have bought these for you if I could in the flea market in Italy

What I bought or wish I had

[Image]I had been hoping on our trip I would find someone cutting silhouettes and we did in Salzburg. I didn't even think twice about it and made everyone in the family get one cut
[Image]yes even Jeff. They were only 4 euros each.
[Image]The guy was an entertainer as well. The girls drew quite a crowd and he had 4 customers after we left. It was dead quiet when we got there. He was out front of the Church where Mozart was baptized in and played in as well.

I think of all of them mine is by far the worst - it looks nothing like me and I don't know why he gave me bangs. I should have put me and Annie Kate's hair in a pony tail. Oh well.

[Image]me - what do you think? any resemblance?

[Image]Annie Kate


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Sally Jane. Her hair was so curly this day and i was glad she had a big bow in too.

[Image]Jeff. I scanned it kind of crooked but I think it is dead on and
he looks kind of presidential don't you think.

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Caroline. I could not believe she held still for it.

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In Innsbruck Austria I bought a water color the Golden Roof from an artist right out front of it.[Image] Annie Kate wanted one too, so she gave us a deal on two. Annie Kate picked one with actual golden leaf on it. [Image]The lady then told us the story of the water fountain painted in the print. It is a freezing cold water that you can drink. This is Jeff filling up Caroline's strawberry shortcake sippie cup. It was refreshing!

[Image]This was a nativity set we found in Murren Switzerland. The cheapest I found at 20 euros a piece but not what I was looking for.
[Image]Annie Kate looking for some treasures in Obberamergau.
[Image]Our friend who used to live in Germany have one of these on their front porch and I wished now I had bought one. They are springy like figures that you hang outside.
[Image]Annie Kate this hand carved wooden box in Obberamergau and she collected some of the Euro's and Swiss Francs to keep and put in there. Along with the ticket to get to the top of the Zugspitze.
[Image]The girls each got a doll of a Austrian girl - they sold the same doll in Germany and Switzerland. Each morning the hotel would make up the girls beds and lay their dolls on their pillow it was so cute.
[Image]As tempted as I was to buy each of the girls a traditional dress I was even more tempted by the Leiderhosen. If I had a boy I would have for sure bought one of these - they were darling.
[Image]I did seem to find a fabric store in each town we went to - how amazing is that. I bought a button from almost each country. I have some ideas in my head of how to put them together, but it was an inexpensive and small item to get from each place.
[Image]This was the dress that haunted me the rest of the trip. I can't begin to say how incredible the fabrics are there. Very high quality and a pleasure to touch. this dress was in Garmish and was beautiful. I only took a photo because I knew if I had her try it one I would buy it. The dress and shirt were like 85 euros. The photo through the window does not even do it justice.
[Image]One night when we went to town in Garmish there was an art festival going on in town center. There was a bunch of pottery- which never seems to attract me but our girls fell in love with these little ceramic animals. I was shocked that Jeff (Mr. Don't buy junk) bought each of the girls one. Annie Kate got a frog, Caroline a cat and Sally Jane went for the duck. The frog and cat made it home but the duck stayed behind somewhere in France.
[Image]I loved seeing the girls get so excited about their little finds. I on the other hand was painfully spending way too much money on a battery charger for my Nikon camera because I left it at home. Oh the pain of spending that money. I walked out of the camera store and Jeff said, "Happy Anniversary" very funny!



[Image]The Easter Egg store in Salzburg was dreamy to go into. They were not that expensive and all hand painted, yes those are all eggs. But I knew there was no way I get one home without some crackage going on.
What is so amazing to me that I didn't remember until we got home was that this Easter we had a nice Easter brunch in downtown D.C. at each table there was a hand painted egg. The egg went to our friends who treated us to brunch but I had asked the waiter if they sold them because I thought it would be a nice memento to remember the day. He said, "oh no we order these every year from a store in downtown Salzburg, Austria"
Now I am even kicking myself more for not spending the 7 Euros to give it a shot for a safe return.

[Image]I had hoped to find a inexpensive wooden nativity carving, but just could not spend the money. I do wish I had bought this large Mary & Joseph that I found in Austria for 48 euros. I saw the exact same one in the wood carving city Oberamergau Germany for 138 Euros. I kept holding out I would find it for 15. No such luck.
[Image]This hat we got for Annie Kate in Italy after days a day of her complaining about the sun. On the center square in Brixen there was a $.99 Euro store so it was only a dollar. The hat was great fro the trip and even made it home in the suit case the same shape.

[Image]Oh the Italian Flea market we found in Brixen we be a highlight for me. Two things were against me in this situation.
Jeff was carrying all the money so I had to ask to buy something (note to self next time bring clothes with pockets so he has less control)
We were all hungry so food search was more important than junk.[Image]At this table was this man who only spoke German and Italian. (again kicking myself I didn't listen better to Herr Kothrun in high school, who knew it would pay off to bargain for something) In the box on the table held some incredible treasures. There was a silver charm travel bracelet that was incredible. So chunky and unique. But oh so much it was $130 Euros. I kept thinking what can I buy that I can give to my grandchildren and say I got this when I took your mother to Europe in 2007 - it is so scary how my mind works that way. There was an old Italian large coin on a chain. It seemed perfect. It was 30 Euros. At this point I wanted to bargain the man for it. I do know my numbers in German. The battle that went on for me were, will I find something better. This is the first few days of the trip, I can't spend all my money in one day. (all I had bought at this point was a 99 cent hat and 3 buttons, what was I thinking) Also because we could only afford this trip because it was basically free - I didn't have a lot of money to spend and had to keep reminding myself being here is the souvenir.
So after walking away, eating dinner and thinking about it way too much. I did not buy the coin. Poor Jeff spent the rest of the two weeks hearing me say, "I should have bought that coin!"
When I came home i looked some up on Ebay and may just buy one to remind me of the story.
[Image]this was a box of sewing notions also at the flea market. At this point the kids were done looking and I never got to dig through this box - oh what could have been inside...


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I took this photo for my dad as he loves old skis. Look how awesome that red scale is too.[Image]I did buy this bag for 4 euros. The lady who sold it to me said she found an old piece of crewel embroidery and cut it up to make a bag. Jeff said "I bet there is a made in Mexico tag inside" I like her story better. She ended up giving all my girls a beaded bracelet for free which was very nice.[Image]ok, this was not for sale but I am so excited to share this and know someone will do something cool with this idea. I was walking past a florist shop and out of the corner of my eye saw this girl making this arrangement out of an old umbrella. I said, "may I please take a photo for my friends"
she had taken an old umbrella and taken off the fabric part. she then covered it in chicken wire and was wrapping a green grapevine in there and then would add flowers. she had made one that had dried and was out front.
I have two old umbrellas that I just may try to do something with. It is much cooler than I think I am describing.
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France by far had the best shopping. We got into town at 8:00 pm and everything closed. I was thrilled when we ended up staying there so we could do some browsing the next morning. I got a couple awesome t-shirts at this store I will post more on later with it's website. It was awesome.

We bought a cow bell for Caroline ( i have not taken a photo yet) to remind her of Switzerland. She had a "run in" with a cow - literally and I can't wait to write it all down in my Vacation from our Vacation post on Switzerland.

also no picture yet, I bought two balls of multi colored string. One at a grocery store in Wengen and one in a Stationery story in Interlocken Switzerland. They are some of my favorite things I bought.

current news here: since we have been home the refrigerator (i miss ice) is broken and so is our air conditioning. We took 2 extra hours to get home from church today because we could not stand going into our home. Our home teacher came over at 8:15 am to home teach us and had told our ward (this is not even the one we go to) our situation and someone came over later to check on us. We are so blessed.