Most important vacation of the year

Finally! I've booked my most important vacation of the year - Sweden. I will be there by end of June/start of July, this is definitely the best time (except for Christmas) to be there I look forward to the silence, the nice people, the woods, the sea, the good fish from the market, I'm counting the days….

Nymphenburg Castle

Yesterday I've been visiting the Nymphenburg Castle in Munich. The castle is situated in the city Munich so you can go there by public transport and it has a huge green park with fountains and swans, the way you would expect a royal park to look like. This is the view you have when coming to the castle:

And some pictures from inside the castle:

After the visiting the castle I spent almost 2 hours just walking trough the park, birds were singing and the scent of the blossoming lilac was everywhere. It was just a perfect afternoon.

Carrot Cake

I like to watch food programs and find new ideas and recipes for baking and cooking. This is a great recipe which I've found on the BBC food channel and which is the best carrot cake I've ever eaten. You need to try it !

picture: yelp

Ingredients

For the carrot cake:

450ml/16fl oz vegetable oil

400g/14oz plain flour

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

550g/1lb 4oz sugar

5 free-range eggs

½ tsp salt

2½ tsp ground cinnamon

525g/1lb 3oz carrots, grated

150g/5½oz shelled walnuts, chopped

For the icing:

200g/7oz cream cheese

150g/5½oz caster sugar

100g/3½oz butter, softened

Preparation

For the carrot cake, preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line a 26cm/10in springform cake tin. Mix all of the ingredients for the carrot cake, except the carrots and walnuts, together in a bowl until well combined. Stir in the carrots and walnuts.

Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the cake from the tin and set aside to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Meanwhile, for the icing, beat the cream cheese, caster sugar and butter together in a bowl until fluffy. Spread the icing over the top of the cake with a palette knife.

Bon appetite! 

Isabell

Ikea Bråkig

"You certainly buy everything from Ikea..." I hear that a lot from people when they hear that I'm half Swedish and well- I must admit I like Ikea. I feel really bad that I missed the Ikea Bråkig series in 2014. It was a special edition they had produced in cooperation with art rebels

picture: art rebels

My favorite from this cooperation pattern is the grey geometric star pattern:

picture: art rebels

Which has been used very nicely in this hall:

picture: solebich

I hope to get some pieces on ebay ;)

Isabell

Spring time

One of the things I like the most in spring is coming back home and walking through our backyard with all the trees that blossom and they have this very sweet scent. No matter how hard the day was I feel relief when entering it. I'm really happy that I have this little secret oasis in the center of Munich right in front of my window:

Isabell

California Dreaming

Tim and I have spent such a wonderful time in California. This was just what we had needed after months of rain and snow and darkness. It is always special to step into an airplane with your winter jacket knowing when you will leave the plan it will be t-shirts and flip flops instead. We've rented a house close to L.A. which was really stylish and we felt so much at home. Most of the time when we travel we prefer to rent apartments or houses to hotel rooms. It gives you the feeling of living there in this country. Tim would move to California immediately if he could, it is his real home. These are some of the pictures I want to share with you how lovely it was and the nice little details:

We're back for almost a month now but we are both still California Dreaming :)

Isabell

Kimono blouses

We've spent 2 weeks in California this Easter ( this is one of the reasons you haven't heard from me for a while :) ) and one of the thing I have bought there and which I think is going to be a new trend this summer are Kimono blouses. The are so stylish and easy to combine with different things, jeans and a white t-shirt and this blouse or shorts like in this picture:

Picture Asos

As soon as the rain stops and it's warmer outside I'll take some pictures of myself to show you the ones I bought.

Have a good start into the new week!

Isabell

Orla Kiely

During our visit in Stockholm at Christmas, the hotel had beauty products from Orla Kiely with the perfume of geranium. It was then I also fell in love with her leaves design -it is very retro, but still simple and beautiful. After this long winter I look forward to some color and I especially like the cushions below:

http://www.orlakiely.com

http://www.orlakiely.com

A new excuse to change the cushions in our apartment  :)

Have a lovely evening!

Isabell