Summer coziness

For me in life there are 2 forms of coziness - winter coziness and summer coziness. Winter coziness is one of the best things I know- for me it's the feeling you have when you come to a warm room from the very cold outside. You light some candles and have some tea on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and you watch the snow falling down thick and soft.

But summer coziness is special, too. You have these long days when it's getting dark at 10 pm, you go to the fruit stand and buy some strawberries, pick some things and go to have a barbecue and you watch the stars. We often do that during summer we just pack some things to eat and some blankets on or bikes and we stay outside until you can see the stars. And the best thing is that it's still warm when you cycle home.

Picture: Ikea

Tomorrow is a bank holiday here in Germany, so I will have time to watch the stars tonight.

Kram,

Isabell

Mini Octoberfest

There is currently a mini Octoberfest at the same place where Munich's Octoberfest takes place every year and it's called "Frühlingsfest"(Spring festival), with 2 small beer tents and a lot of fairground rides and old carousels, so I finally managed to take a picture for my blog and changed the profile picture, this is the original picture:

I hope you like it :)

Isabell

How the Ballerinas from Alfred Eisenstadt look like...

I was so curious about how the Ballerinas would look like in the bedroom, that I went to buy a frame today and I'm so happy about the result and I couldn't wait to show you:

The candle holder on the left side is from my Dad, he made it in school when he was 10 years old. I would like to have a second one, one size smaller or taller and I finally found a shop that has a similar one but of course it's not identical. But I'll have to wait until summer, because this shop is in Sweden... maybe one of my Dad's classmates sold his. :) 

Kram,

Isabell

Pillow cases from Bali

I found 2 very nice pillow cases in Bali and I've finally managed to leave work a little bit earlier today to buy two new pillows, as I only had odd sizes and of course only one of each size :). So this is the result:

I like it very much and the best thing is that the cases have 2 sides, on the other side it's white with grey flowers so this will be great for many bed linens.

Kram,

Isabell

Ramsons leaves soup

Another great thing about May and Spring is all the fantastic food you can get. As the ramsons season is very short and this soup is such a delicious and easy dish, hurry up and try it! :) I got these ramsons leaves from my parents' garden but you can get it in greengroceries, too.

This is all you need: 

2 small shallots, approx. 3 hands full of ramsons leaves, 150 gr creme fraiche or sour cream, 0.5 l stock

Start with the shallots, peel them and cut into cubes and sweat in a pan with a little bit of oil or butter, if you like your soup to be thicker add 1/2- 1 teaspoon of flour be careful not to burn it. Cut the ramsons leaves in small stripes and add to the pan, add the stock. if you have used the flour make sure to lift the pan away from the oven when filling in the stock, to avoid lumps in the soup. let cook for approx. 5 minutes. Add the creme fraiche and use a hand blender for the soup:

And the result: 

Hope you will like it as much as I do, but be sure not to have a meeting with a customer the same day because it really smells like garlic. :)

Kram,

Isabell

First of May

It is so wonderful to have a day off from work in the middle of the week. We had a late breakfast and then we took our bikes to cycle to Isar (Munich's river). This is one of the great things about Munich, even though it's a city you have a lot of recreation areas with trees, parks and grassland. But Isar is definitely the best one, you can even go swimming in the river during summer or have a barbecue there. When we came back we had an ice cream in the little park that is in the courtyard, I just want to show you how nice it is when the cherry tree blossoms :

You know I love Christmas, but this part of the year is special too. Looking forward to picking the ripe cherries in a few weeks :)

Have a good first of May!

Isabell

Picture from Alfred Eisenstaedt

During my renovation and inspiration research I found this picture from Alfred Eisenstaedt and I ordered it and got it today! I don't know why this picture has made such a great impression on me, but I like it. This is a perfect picture for the bedroom, as this room is mostly filled with things from my old apartment and maybe a little bit too feminine for Tim.

Photo:theartkey

Now it's only a frame missing and then I'll show you :)


Isabell

Wedding invitations part 1

The first thing I did today, when I came home was to write the invitations to our wedding for our relatives. I thought it was a nice idea to hand-write them which was quite a challenge after such a long working day. :) As you can see on the pictures I found some simple invitations that are not too overloaded, I like the simple golden "Hochzeit". Then I used a golden pen to draw 2 rings on each invitation and on each enveloppe.

So this is the first step to marriage... I couldn't stop thinking about the way I thought a marriage would be when I was a child. At that age I thought that I would already be married at the age of 20 and that I would have 2 children at the age that I have now. But I'm happy to marry the man I love, no matter how old I am. :)

Kram,

Isabell

The first sign for summer...

The first sign for summer for me is when I buy the hydrangeas for my window in the kitchen. I just love this flower and it will stay with me during the entire summer and even until autumn. My grandma always had white geraniums in her window in the kitchen during summer which matched perfectly to the curtains she had hand-sewn and that had a fresh scent of the washing agent she used. I normally choose blue or white hydrangeas but this year I decide to take pink ones:

Summer has entered my apartment :)


Kram and have a lovely evening!

Isabell

Mousse au chocolat

We're going to celebrate my brother's birthday tomorrow and I promised to bring a dessert and as my colleague brought me some dessert chocolate from France I decided to make a mousse au chocolat because this is one of my favourite desserts. I've only eaten it in restaurants so far, so this is my first mousse au chocolate:

I chose the praliné chocolate (200 grams) for this dessert:

I started by melting the chocolate in a double boiler:

After the chocolate was melted, it had to cool down for 1 minute and I added 30 grams of butter which I've cut in small cubes and stirred . Then I whipped 200 ml cream and added 1/3 of the whipped cream  and folded it into the chocolate butter mix:

And finally the rest of the whipped cream:

I'll have to leave it in the fridge until tomorrow and then we can eat it together with some strawberries:

It was really easy to make this dessert and I tasted a little bit ;), it's really delicious. 

Kram,

Isabell

Cozy bedrooms

You know I'm always looking for inspiration for our home and for me a cozy bedroom is one of the most important things in a home. It should be a place to relax and sleep, to have breakfast in striped pajamas, read books, listen to music...

A long time ago I already made screenshots from these bedrooms and bed linens to get some inspiration:

A different way of breakfast in bed - with a fruit tray

I'm looking forward to continuing to redecorate and paint our apartment... I'll start tomorrow and of course I'll show you. :)

Kram

sabell

Dessert Chocolate

My colleague just came back from her holidays in Southern France and she knows that I like mousse au chocolate very much so she bought these 2 French chocolates for me which are special chocolates for desserts. I haven't tried to prepare mousse au chocolate yet, but I'm curious to try it.

My brother will celebrate his birthday this weekend, so I will try it and I'll show you the result. I can't decide whether I should take the white chocolate or the praliné...

Have a good evening!

Isabell

First Biergarten Day in Munich

Today was my first Biergarten (beer garden) Day in Munich for this year, because it was very warm. I love this part of the year when it's still sun when you leave work and you go to a Biergarten together with your friends or colleagues to drink a beer or in my case a "Radler" (Which is a mix of beer and lemonade) and just enjoy the rest of the day.

Photo: hofbraeukeller

One of my favourite Biergarten here in Munich is the "Hofbräukeller" beer garden which is on "Wiener Platz"but today we just went to a beer garden close to work. I'm so looking forward to going there with Tim this weekend, hope the weather won't change.

Kram,

Isabell

Noa Noa Collection 2013

Noa Noa is one of my favorite brands, the outfits are simple but so beautiful. They mostly use pastel colours and are from Denmark. When I'm in Denmark I always go to the Noa Noa outlet in Copenhagen, because they also sell the items from home collection, which are very hard to get here in Munich. This is the new Noa Noa collection for 2013:

I especially like the apricot dress and the cap sleeve shirt. I think about buying one of them this summer :)

Kram,

Isabell