{let the shopping begin}

my friend yvonne, whom i've not met yet but have been talking to via email for nearly a year already, recently relocated from mexico to northern germany only 30 minutes from where i'll be located. what a great thing this is! we both have lots of the same interests and like me, she likes to play around with photography, blog, decorate, travel, shop, and garden. a match made in friendship heaven i think!

{even a little snail has a soft bed in the forest. so shall we.}

but first... other important things like finding a bed to sleep in and a mattress for a good night's rest! and yvonne has helped me get started on my search with lots of links that i will share with you in the days to come. i have pretty much nothing in our apartment, which has been sitting there alone and waiting for us since last sept '07. but renovations had to be done and those just wrapped up in april, so now we have booked our flights and will head over in august where we will remain until the end of december. of course when we arrive, we'll need instant things because a hard floor just won't do for sleeping, so i have to order a bed and linens, and some of the very basic things. we are borrowing a microwave, stove, and sink but will need to eventually purchase new ones since the apartment did not come with an equipped kitchen -- just a little empty room with electrical outlets only called a kitchen. this is very common in germany, apartments do not come standard with kitchen appliances and cabinetry - some do - but most do not. much different than in america. i love this because how many apartments in america actually have *good* kitchens anyway? most are rubbish. so i like the idea of bringing your own cabinetry and appliances. plus they are yours so there's a good feeling knowing that no one else has used them before. body parts were never stored in the freezer and dogs haven't been washed in the sink prior to your moving in. it's a good thing. so i have lots to do like research and ordering between now and the end of june. we'll need to place our orders by tehn in order for things to arrive in time. lucky for us, we have family in germany to sign for packages and lock and unlock our apartment for furniture to be delivered. my dear mother-in-law is going to clean the place from top to bottom and a friend will take care of cleaning the windows (inside, outside, frames) so it shouldn't need much when we get there as far as cleaning is concerned. at least not much. i will post a list of things to buy within the next 30 days here on haus maus. if you have any suggestions as to where i can find this stuff in germany or europe (they have to ship to germany) i'd really appreciate your tips. xo,