Ritter Sport Peppermint Chocolate Brownies

My precious Ritter Sport peppermint chocolate has expired! Yikes!! How could that happen?? It was hidden in a corner in the fridge and somehow got lost. It has only been a few days though. 
Brownies are always a good idea and the perfect opportunity to use up the chocolate.

DIY Glitter Deer Head Mod Podge Makeover

DIY Glitter Deer Head Mod Podge Makeover

A glitter deer head of some kind had been on my DIY Christmas decoration list for years, so naturally this little ornament landed in my cart as soon as I saw it.

It was the last one, and looked a bit shabby already, with glitter coming off around the nose, but who cares for 79 Cent. Nothing a bit of extra glitter and Mod Podge can't fix, right?

Easy Swedish Carrot Cake Recipe

Easy Swedish Carrot Cake Recipe

You know cooking and baking must be quick and easy, otherwise it's not a preferred activity of mine.
This Swedish carrot cake is exactly that. And delicious!

I found the recipe on Pinterest while looking for a way to use up leftover shredded carrots from a salad the other day, and it is my new favorite, because it is so moist and SO GOOD!

Herbst

Face Mask

Samples. Aaaah, samples. 
Subscription boxes of oh-so-amazing samples of anything from food supplements to the ultimate forever-young cream are very trendy and popular these days. Every woman seems to love samples. Except for me, of course...

IKEA

Happy Birthday To Me

Green, so green

Late summer walks

These past few last summer days were good ones; sunny and warm enough to wear a shirt and flip flops, so I decided to get my lazy behind outside and walk around town. Admittedly it bores me to walk alone, but then I'm used to being alone and it's better to be alone outside than alone at home.
I try to be more active on my own during the week, to decrease the pressure on hubby to "entertain" me on the weekends. He needs time to relax too.
So I walk around, enjoy the sunshine and take too many photos.

A Sunday well spent

Bike hunting

I've been obsessed with the idea of buying a new bicycle lately. One that is more comfortable, more relaxed, less sporty. A dutch style city bike, in a fancy color of course.
Last weekend I tried a few

Uhlenfest 2017

Happy Sunday

Three months till christmas, yikes!

I'm so lazy lately, can't bring myself to do anything. I wasted way too much time on Instagram, fighting the algorythm, trying every possible thing to get seen by my own followers and gain new ones, real ones, not those crap companies or super bloggers who follow today and unfollow tomorrow.
Instagram ruins itself by adding stories. Of course it's easier to just swipe from one story to the next, rather than endlessly scrolling down a chaotic senseless feed cluttered with ads.
I switched to a business account in order to get stats, which seemingly made my low visibility even worse. Now I give up.

F*#@ you, Instagram! 

And back to blogging, which is waaayyyy more work, but worth it. Probably. At least it feels less like a monologue than Instagram.

So August is gone, and here's a little recap.

Happy Sunday

Welcome August! A little July recap:

SPO 3

SPO 2

SPO 1

Happy Birthday Tommy!

Happy Sunday

It's no secret that I absolutely love stripes. Couldn't resist ordering these beauties from Joules. The sweater was a catastrophe, unfortunately. Never ever have I seen such poor quality on a piece of garment. Needless to say I returned it, as well as the white dress. It made me look as pale as a ghost. With a coupon and free shipping, I only paid 15€ for the blue striped dress. Bargain numero uno.

Sunny Summer Sunday

After four days of non-stop helicopter noise and police/emergency sirens, we were rewarded with the finest ( and quiet) summer Sunday as a compensation for that insane G20 madness. So we finally took our bikes for the first tour this year. 

What's growing?

My "Grow your own" obsession continues. The latest project is a pineapple. It's so easy ( at least in theory): cut the crown, put it in water, wait for the roots to grow, then plant in soil. We'll see if it works. 

Happy Sunday

Happy Sunday and a June recap.

Hubby surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of 25 roses for 12 1/2 years.

In my Garden

When we moved into our new apartment ( which I just realize I never blogged about, but might do so in the future), we fell in love with the idea of having a patio and a lawn area. Despite it being much smaller than our balcony in the previous apartment, I somehow manage to make most of the limited space. After replacing the lawn with a wooden deck this spring, I created different zones that seperate the space into three main areas: sitting/ dining, relaxing and growing.

Peonies

Homemade Strawberry Marmelade Recipe

As soon as we got home from strawberry picking, I started to process our harvest. One portion went straight into a blender, for a refreshing and healthy strawberry-rasperry-smoothie. Another portion went into the freezer.

Summer Date: Strawberry Picking

Planten Un Blomen

Hamburg is a VERY green city, with numerous beautiful and well maintained parks. One of the largest and prettiest is "Planten Un Blomen". It's a gem, a paradise for tree and flower lovers, an oasis no matter what season. You can walk around for hours, or just sit and relax and enjoy being alife on one of the many benches and chairs, on the lawn near lakes and waterfalls or under a tree.
Countless blooming flowers make for the most colorful experience on a sunny day.

DIY Bright Colorful Abstract Painting

English tutorial coming in a minute ;)

Ölfarben sind einfach herrlich. Ich liebe die Konsistenz, da ich bevorzugt mit dem Spachtel arbeite, statt Pinsel. Es gefällt mir nämlich gar nicht wenn Farbe einfach nur dünn aufgemalt wird, und man die Struktur der Leinwand durchschimmert sieht. Schön dick muss es sein.

Leider bin ich viel zu ungeduldig, denn Ölfarben haben eine sehr lange Trocknungszeit. Wir reden hier nicht von ein paar Stunden, sondern Wochen, ja sogar Monaten. 

Darum male ich sonst hauptsächlich mit Acryl- oder Aquarellfarben bzw Guache, aber hier liegt noch ein ganzer Satz Ölfarbe rum, und die möchte ich gerne aufbrauchen, denn vom liegen wird sie auch nicht besser, ganz im Gegenteil. 

Tulips

Amaryllis