With summer just around the corner I had to try this s'mores cake recipe. I just swiched the brownie dough to my go-to chocolate cupcake dough, which is a little less heavy. I still found the cake relatively sweet, but that's fine for me.
rise & shine
parka: Primark; dress and shirt: H&M
worn with black tights and ballet flats
Let me tell you a little something about my shopping behaviour. (And maybe grab a coffee, this might be a "little" longer than usual) So, I've always loved shopping. It just feels so good to roam the stores, look at the pretty things, imagine yourself wearing this piece or that. How would you wear it? When would you wear it? What would you feel like? (Little confession here: in those thoughts, I always look incredibly beautiful. Does that happen to you as well? Do you even have such thoughts? Come on, tell me I'm not alone here!)
When I was younger and still in University I would go to the city often to look around, see what's new, maybe try on a few pieces. But as I did not have a lot of money I would evaluate rather thoroughly what I would eventually buy. If I liked something, I would generally wait about 1 or 2 weeks. If I was still thinking about the piece come the next trip to the city, I would go ahead and buy it. If not, I did't really need it after all, right? Now, I'm not saying all the purchases I made back then were perfect. I was a lot younger then, experimenting a lot with different styles and figuring out what worked for me and what not. Naturally there were some mispurchases. However, most of the things I bought, I would wear at least 1 or 2 years.
Towards the end of my time in Uni, Primark came to my town, and I went totally crazy. For probably the first year, I would just mindlessly buy everything I liked in that store, because it was so pretty, yet so cheap I could afford buying a lot more than before. I even created a special blog. But all the prettiness did't really last that long in most of the cases. The dresses were usually too short for my bodytype (most bodytypes actually, to be honest), a lot of pieces so "on trend" you could wear them for a month and then it was over. And some things I only bought because I saw something similar in a blog or magazine and, well, they were cheap. So most pieces I ended up returning or selling on Ebay. I'm not saying it was all crap. I also bought some amazing pieces that I still wear today, like some simple leather sandals, a few pieces of jewellery or the parka in this post for example. Fortunately after some time, I habituated to the "Primark-craze". I bought less stuff there, returned to my old trusty swede, and - thanks to my friend A. - learned that designer brands can make a huge difference in product quality, but don't necessarily have to. (Did I tell you the button of my Marni coat (that was a gift and ridiculously cheap, just so you don't think I can afford Marni normally) came off after wearing it 4 times? Still, the fabric feels amazing.)
And then I started my first job. I'm not saying I went from rags to riches, but for the first time in my life I could afford to buy things at H&M, Zara, and the other usual suspects without thinking too much. That was actually not a good thing. I ended up doubleing the amount of clothes I had within one year (and I already had a lot to begin with). My closet was exploding, yet I always felt like I had nothing to wear. At some point, I challenged myself to 3 months without shopping to save some money for a DSLR. Maybe you remember that. This shopping detox put things back into perspective a little bit. Ever since then I have been trying to change my shopping behaviour bit by bit. I want to buy less clothes so I can invest in higher quality. I want a closet full of clothes I love and feel great wearing. I don't want 20+ purses and 50+ shoes to choose from, but a few really great ones. But at the same time, I want to have fun shopping, and sometimes you just see something, love it right away, buy it, and keep loving it for years to come. I don't want to cut myself off of fast fashion and trends completely, it's just too much fun. I've made some progress in the past year already. I am not saying there are no mispurchases anymore, but the amount has considerably dropped since I've started to actually use my brain while shopping again. I still have a long way to go. I still tend to rather buy 5 black T's than one quality one. But I know I have to give it time.
So after this long story, here's why I created this new category on the blog. I realized I don't really manage to take proper outfit shoots most of the time. Yet I think it would be nice to keep track of what I am wearing in everyday life on a regular basis. Keeping track of which pieces and styles I am wearing more or less often might help me decide even better what to buy in the future. In rise&shine I will document my everyday outfits in a most simple manner.
So, what is your shopping behaviour? And have you found your signature style yet?
This post was sparked by a comment I recently posted on this very inspiring article over at amazed.
april showers, may flowers
denim shirt: Gina Tricot; jeans, flannel shirt: H&M; star canvas shoes: Primark; handknitted shawl: gift from A. B.
my jeans are too tight
cupcake cups: HEMA
Ok, so I figure out half my jeans have become too tight and what do I do: bake some cupcakes. Yeah, that's totally logic.Just my go-to chocolate dough with some peanutbutter on top this time:
Mix 1 Egg, 100g Butter and 100g sugar together. Add 2 teaspoons of baking powder, a bit of salt, 200g flour and 3-5 Tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder (depending on how chocolate-y you'd like your cupcakes). To soften the dough, add about 100ml milk. Bake at 200°C for about 20 minutes.
Voilá, nothing fancy, but soo good!
By the way, I think those cupcake forms are actually ice cream cups, but they work anyways.
coffee and tea
My lovely readers, I'm so sorry I have been absent for so long. It's just that work takes up so much time and energy recently.
However, I wanted to show you this sweet DIY I made as a Birthday gift for my sweet M and her husband in March. It is strongly inspired by this beautiful post from the girls over at a beautiful mess, but I added the red lips and moustache. I really like how this turned out. I'm thinking this might also be a nice wedding gift.
All you'll need is 2 plain white mugs and red and black porcelain markers. Follow the instructions on the markers and have fun drawing.
millefleurs
Ok, so has this silently become a food blog here? I don't really know. But I must say, I really love how this cake turned out. I used this recipe in a cake form, made some buttercream frosting and spread it all over the cake and finally covered it in a thin layer of white fondant. Then I cut out the pink blossoms from pink fondant to decorate the cake (and hide the not-so-pretty bottom part of the cake).
By the way: sorry for the bad pictures. I was in a rush... all those blossoms took longer than I expected...
very berry
a better place
Things that make the world a better place
This is the theme of the Couch Blog Star Award. When I heard this, I immediately thought about: baking!
I don't know about you, but whenever I'm in a bad mood or I need some cheering up, I head straight to my kitchen and start baking. Cookies, cupcakes, muffins, or even a rainbow cake you name it. It feels so rewarding to create something so pretty and tasty.
So on one grey and cold January sunday I tried tiny little tartes au citròn. They were incredibly delicious!
It may not be the fastest treat you can make, but so worth it!
By the way: I hear so many people have problems with meringue. I somehow never had. In my experience the most important part is that the egg whites are really cool (refrigerated for at least 1 day).
This is the theme of the Couch Blog Star Award. When I heard this, I immediately thought about: baking!
So on one grey and cold January sunday I tried tiny little tartes au citròn. They were incredibly delicious!
It may not be the fastest treat you can make, but so worth it!
By the way: I hear so many people have problems with meringue. I somehow never had. In my experience the most important part is that the egg whites are really cool (refrigerated for at least 1 day).
DIY 2013 agenda
And for those of you that are late like me, I'm providing this calendar for you to download in english (here) or german (here). Get the cover (here).
Simply print out all pages except first page in booklet duplex on regular printer paper. If you don't have duplex, use booklet front pages only first, then put the paper in the printer again and print booklet back pages on the backside. Instruction here
Print the cover on cardboard.
For the spiral binding, first cut all pages in the middle and assemble in the right order. Then take them to a copy shop, they can do the spiral binding for you. Or maybe you have a machine for that, like I do.
Or you can also just use the sewed version that I also used for the Paris Journal here. In that case, do not cut the pages, but instead fold them in half and sew together.
blueberry meringue
I got some tartelette forms for christmas that I wanted to try out yesterday. I can't believe how delicious these turned out to be! Make sure to try them when they're still warm.
30 before 30
So, no new years resolutions to share this year. However, ever since my 29th birthday I have been collecting a number of things I would like to have done before turning 30 this year. Some things are really trivial, some are quite a challenge for me, and some were already accomplished (like the trip to Paris and buying a skateboard). But after finally completing the list yesterday, I thought why not share it here at the start of the new year.
Let's hope it's a good one
Happy new year everyone!
I hope you had wonderful holidays and a great party (or a quiet celebration) yesterday.
I celebrated the beginning of 2013 with some friends and made little wish jars for everyone, where the wishes and resolutions for the new year can be kept.
I used little spice-jars that I filled with silver stars, little pigs or clover and finished off with a label.
I'm going to write my wishes down right now!
2013 - let's hope it's a good one
sweet moments
I really love chai tea latte. Last year I made homemade chai syrup for the first time, and last week it was time to make some again. Here's my recipe. I read over at nicest things and here that you could also add some pepper. Maybe I'll try that next time.
Once you have your syrup, just take a cup of steamed milk and add about 2-3 teaspoons of syrup.
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