Some impressions from Singapore

I finally arrived in Bali and they have Wifi! :) So here are the things I saw the last 2 days, which I would like to show you. This was the view at night from our hotel room:

Some lights from the next building, I like this picture very much:

We also visited Chinatown, you can tell by the Chinese lanterns:

We have just arrived in Bali, so I will just take a shower and go to bed now.

Have a lovely day,


I'll keep you posted :)

Isabell

Glad Påsk, Frohe Ostern and Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all of you!

Photo: smalandbilder.se/Jenny Lindberg

I wish you all a Happy Easter together with your family and friends!

Kram Isabell

♥

Ready for traveling

I've just packed everything for our journey, I'm looking forward to it but at the same time I also feel sad. I always have this feeling before leaving, I don't know why. As soon as I am in the destination, it's gone and the joy about being there prevails. It's like a thing that comes to your mind automatically like when you have just closed the door and you ask yourself if you have switched off the coffee machine. I also always have the feeling that I forgot something, and mostly I really do :). So now I'm ready for traveling...

Photo: fertig-reisen

I don't know when I'm going to have an internet connection, but I'll write as soon as I have it. :)

Kram,

Isabell

DIY Easter Decoration

I just found some very nice last minute decoration for Easter, which you can easily prepare before your guests are coming, all you need are some branches and different papers with different colours:

Photo:livingathome

or the other decoration I like a lot is this one:

Photo:schoener-wohnen

Egg and Bunny ornaments made from Newspapers:

Photo: impressionen

As I won't have an Easter brunch this year, I hope you will have an Easter brunch together with your friends and families! Of course I'm looking forward to our vacation, but I would have liked to have my family around during Easter.

Kram,

Isabell

Just 3 more winter days...

It had already snowed the entire day, so when I went home from work today the streets were filled with snow and it was freezing cold and dark. While wearing a thick winter jacket, a cap and gloves, I thought about how incredible it is that I'm flying to a place with 28-35°C in only 3 days. I can't believe it, I can change all that into a bikini and flip flops, dresses, shorts, t-shirts... all the things that have been lying hidden behind the winter pullovers in my wardrobe for month now. We've also booked the first nights in Bali a few minutes ago, this is how our hotel looks like:

And of course the beach....

I'm so very much looking forward to vacation! Hope I will have wifi in the hotels to be able to show you everything!

Kram,

Isabell

Being a tourist in your own city

We've been at so many places all over the world and you know we will soon be on our way to Bali and Singapore, but when our friends from Denmark were here we went on a sightseeing tour through Munich. And I must say you sometimes get blind for the beauty of your homecity and it was fun to be a tourist in my own city and to see it with different eyes again. Munich has really some very nice places to offer:

 This a an entrance at Odeonsplatz with very nice ornaments.

One of the typical things to do is in Residenzstrasse, where you find these Lions, passers-by rub his nose, which is supposed to bring luck. Of course our friends did too :), who dosn't need luck?

 

Then we went to Max-Weber-Platz to go to the "Hofbräukeller" at Wiener Platz. This is one of my favourite beergardens during summer, but this time we went inside for a "Weissbier", as the beergardens are still closed and it's snowing outside.

Have a nice evening!

Isabell

Dinner at Monsieur Hu Munich

We went to a restaurant named Monsieur Hu in Munich's Dreimühlenviertel. It's a Pan-Asian restaurant with a very stylish interior and a very cozy atmosphere. It was the first time that I tried this restaurant and I can really recommend it.

I had a curry with beef and vegetables and it was very delicious, I think we have found a new favorite :)

Have a good rest of the weekend,

Kram ,

Isabell

Curd cheese casserole dessert

We just had a very nice evening with our friends from Denmark. I made a dessert with curd cheese and lemon which is very nice and easy to prepare:

Here is what you need:

50 g soft butter
100 g sugar
3 eggs
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
1 lemon (zest)
75 g cornstarch
500 g curd cheese
50 g almonds flakes
1 tbsp butter, in flakes


Separate the eggs and whisk egg whites until stiff. Then whisk the butter with sugar, egg yolk, vanilla, lemon zest and cornstarch until smooth. Carefully fold in the curd cheese and then the beaten egg white.

Grease a baking dish and fill in the curd cheese mixture. Sprinkle with almond flakes and finally with butter flakes. Bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees for approx. 45-50 minutes. I used the old backing dish from my grandma and it was a nice and at the same time sad moment when I took it out of the cupboard, because I remembered all the nice desserts she had used it for. 

Have a nice evening!

Kram,

Isabell

Sorry...

.... I was too tired to write yesterday, I came home from work and just fell asleep. But today I'm feeling good, as my best friend from Copenhagen will come to visit me, they will arrive at 23:00 at our place. I'm so very much looking forward to it, lots of fun and I will go to a bridal wear shop together with her and try some wedding dresses. Isn't that what you have dreamt of since you were a child? For me this is a special day...Unfortunatelly I can't show you the dress before our wedding as Tim is also sometimes reading my blog, but I will after my wedding. But I can show you the flowers I would like to have my favourite ones for my wedding are peonies:

Have a good friday evening!

Kram,

Isabell

Impressions from Lexington Spring 2013

I like the things from Lexington very much, the nice colours and the plaids and blankets and little details they have. I've just had a look at their collection for Spring 2013:

Photo: lexingtoncompany

Photo: dasapartmentliving

Photo: lexingtoncompany

These pictures make you wanna stay in bed all day in your pajamas reading a good book... Love it!

Kram,

Isabell

You get what you give

It can sometimes be too much to be a god person. I have often been disappointed by those I helped the most in my life and as I never say "stop", "no" or "I can't do it" but "Yes of course", "Yes", " How can I help you?" it can sometimes be bad to realize that some people just take advantage of it. And then there are situations like today, when I came home and I found this Easter bunny withote "Thank you for your help" note, wrapped in a transparent foil hanging at my door from a friend from whom I wouldn't  have expected that she would say anything at all.

So somehow you get what you give...

Kram,

Isabell

Calm wedding

One of the things I wish for my wedding is that it will be a calm one. Not to many people, a special place with a lot of white and lights. I found this picture in awedding book and it expresses perfectly what I'm looking for. It's a special place in the middle of a forest or a garden surrounded by trees and a little stream. In the Treebraches you can see drop-shaped glases that are tea- candle holders and in the front some vases with water and swimming candles:

I simply love that picture, but I have a great chance to find something like that in Sweden :).

Have a good evening!

Isabel

New colour on the wall

The colour has finally dried and I really like it! Our entire kitchen is very white (even the floor is white) so with the grey colour it gives it a completely new style:

We will use the same colour for the workroom, just a little bit brighter, so back into my painter's overall and start painting :).

Have a really nice sunday!

Isabell

Time for other things?

Today is a day on which I really managed to do a lot... Early in the morning we went to a building center to buy everything you need for painting the wall and some other things ( you go to a building center for 1 thing and you go home with a 100 :)) Then I've painted one wall of the kitchen in dark grey... I'm so excited about seeing the result tomorrow morning when it has dried! And I will of course also show it to you tomorrow. After that I felt a need to do the spring cleaning, so I've started that too and now I'm sitting here at the table and I'm very happy about all the things I managed to do feeling like an interior designer from one of these tv shows. :) Sometimes I feel a need to just read a book or just do nothing and then there are times where I just feel I need to change something and I roll up my sleeves and I work for hours on one thing and I just can't stop until it's finished. The only bad thing about it is that time passes away so fast and all of a sudden the weekend is gone and it's monday and you need to go to work again. I can sometimes feel that I would need double the time than the one I have for doing things I like and to also keep just a little time for myself too. As I already told you in one of my posts I can't say no and I tend to "overbook" my weekends, so that I ask myself on monday where all the time has gone...

Yum Thai Restaurant Munich

Sometimes it's good to celebrate a normal day and to go to a good restaurant for dinner together. Like we did today, it was not a special occasion, just a normal day and that made it perfect. We went to"Yum", a Thai restaurant in Munich which has definitely the best Thai food outside of Thailand. It's a little bit more expensive but it's worth it. The whole atmosphere is very welcoming and you feel like entering a spa...

Photo: yum

Photo: yum

Even the food is represented in a very beautiful way, with flowers and vegetable carvings. All dishes are homemade, fresh and without flavour enhancer. If you should ever be in Munich and you like Thai food, this is the place to be! :)

Photo: yum

Kram,

Isabell

Violas

I know it's a stupid idea. We're soon leaving for our vacation but I couldn't resist to buy these little violas. I don't know why this year is so different than the other years, I need Spring and Summer. It's simply not typical for me. It all started already with Christmas, I packed away everything earlier than any year before. And since I then I've started to wish that it would be summer immediately and I do everything to get Spring and Summer inside the apartment even if the weather in Munich is doing the opposite outside...

But doesn't it feel good to see flowers even if you have a snow storm outside your window. You can choose that it's Spring or Summer... inside :)

Have a lovely day,

Isabell

Singapore - here we come!

I love Singapore. I've already been there together with my Dad a couple of years ago and I like the mix of different cultures and I must admit I'm happy that it's very clean, not like many other Asian cities I've visited. Many people say that it's not typical Asian, and they don't like it because it's so clean and structured in a way. But for me (or the German part of me :)) it's perfect like that. We're just going to stay there for 1 night, so we decided to choose a really luxurious hotel for this night: Swissotel the Stamford. Just looking at the pictures makes me very happy, I realize how much I need holidays...

Photo: swissotel

Photo: swissotel

Photo: swissotel

They even have a skybar at the roof of the hotel, I hope I can get some nice pictures from there and will be able to show you these.

Photo: swissotel

Singapore- here we come (soon)! :)

Kram,

Isabell

Lindt Easter Bunny

It is an old German tradition that the children look for Easter eggs that the "Easter Bunny" has hidden. When I woke up on Easter Sunday there was always a basket filled with green grass and a Lindt Easter Bunny. Then my brother and I had to look for the chocolate eggs that were hidden in the garden when it was warm outside or inside the house when it was cold outside.

It wasn't only a few times that we found some of the eggs that we hadn't found during Easter, during Christmas when my Dad took out the Swedish cookbook from the bookshelf. What a sweet surprise :)

Kram,

Isabell

Pompoms for my wedding -DIY

I'm currently looking for decoration for my wedding and I really like these pompoms, which I've seen on Martha Stewart's website:

Photo: marthastewart

and also as decoration on the table for the serviettes:

Photo: marthastewart

I think that it's easy to make these myself, but for my wedding I will need help from my family to make all these pom poms :)

Photo: solebich

A very good blog with instructions how to DIY is nicepackageblog. I'll keep you up to date...

Kram,

Isabell

Healthy breakfast

I started this morning with very healthy food.  I cut a mango into cubes and the first strawberries for this year and plain yoghurt which I've sweetened with some honey. This is the best breakfast you can have :)

Kram,

Isabell

Lark Rise to Candleford

While I was in the library a few days ago, I also looked for new series. I found a series from BBC that is called "Lark Rise to Candleford"which is a costume drama playing in Oxfordshire in the 19th century. I like these BBC series very much, I also saw all episodes from “Upstairs Downstairs". It's about a young girl named Flora who comes from a small village named Lark Rise and moves to the local market town Candleford to begin an apprenticeship as a postmistress. In this series it's of course a lot of drama but it's very nice. I especially like the character "Dorcas Lane" in this series who is her boss and owns the post office of Candleford.

The entire post office is very cozy and I especially like the kitchen, where they all meet for tea:

This series is very nice for these cold winter days in the evening, when you sit on the sofa with a cup of tea and a blanket and you just want to see something nice and if you like lovely clothes and a charmingly old-fashioned way of life and lovable characters.

You can watch all episodes from this series on youtube:

Kram,

Isabell

Friday - Weekend Feeling

Why can't everyday be like friday? I left the office very early today and went to the library to get some new audio books for the weekend and to bring my old ones back. Friday is the best day I know, you have this weekend feeling and you know you have 2 full days to do just what you want, perfect! On my way home, I passed by the supermarket and bought a magazine and some coffee. I'll put my legs up on the sofa, read and just relax.

Have a good friday evening!

Isabell

Klitterbyn

One of my beloved memories of my childhood is the vacation in Klitterbyn in Sweden. This is a little village made of wooden houses for rent which is very close to the sea. When we went to Sweden during summer time it was always also 2 weeks that we spent there.

Photo: klitterbyn

My grandma had always been there a few days before we came to Sweden and had cleaned everything and made köttbullar. On the way to the beach there were wild strawberries and raspberries growing on each side of the way, which my grandma and I picked.

Photo: klitterbyn

Photo: klitterbyn

As we are going to get married in Sweden too, I would like to spend some time there, even if I know that it's never going to be the same again...

Kram,

Isabell

Braided Easter bun

A typical Easter tradition in Germany is the braided Easter bun. Many families have a Easter brunch on Easter Sunday and this is something that is a must:

Photo: ichkoche.at

This is what you need:

400 g flour
160 ml lukewarm milk
40 g fresh yeast
60 g butter
2 eggs (only the egg yolks)
60 g sugar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 table spoon citron zest

1 egg
decorating sugar


Melt the butter and add the milk. Pour mixture into mixing bowl and allow to cool until “finger-warm” (still quite warm, but just cool enough to touch). Stir in yeast and let sit for 10 minutes. Add sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and citron zest and raisins if you like raisins.

Mix the flour into liquid and then the egg. Add enough flour to form a soft dough (just until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Don't add too much flour as the dough gets dry). Put the dough to a large bowl and cover it with a clean towel and allow to rise until doubled, approx. 30 minutes.

Cover the dough and let rise for 45 minutes. Divide the dough in 3 equal pieces and roll into ropes. Loosely braid the ropes and put on a greased baking tray. Let rise for another 30 minutes until braid is plump and doubled in size. Brush with beaten egg and add the decorating sugar, bake for about 30 minutes at 190C/347F

H&M Home and Zara Home Spring 2013

I've been on the H&M Home and the Zara Home webpage today and had a look at the Spring collections. H&M Home has a lot of brown, grey, beige, silver and white colours in their Spring collection:

Zara Home has the same colour range, I especially like the glass flacons on this picture:

but also a lot of mixed colors:

and a very very colorful version:

Kram,

Isabell