H&M's Christmas collection 2013

H&M's Christmas collection 2013 is very traditional in white, green and red- just the way I like it! I've picked some of my favorite items, which I'd like to show you:

Also very nice with the grey color and the white characters:

 I like the pillow, the only thing I dislike is the stamp they have printed on it, that's typical for H&M, it would have been better without it:

 The same thing here, why do you need a stamp on it?

When I see all of this I can't wait to get all of my own Christmas decoration down from the attic. Just a few more weeks! :)

Kram,

Isabell

Musselmalet Mega DIY result

After a long autumn walk through Munich's English Garden, a coffee in one of my favorite coffee shops here in Munich and some cheesecake ;) , I finally got the message that my cup and saucer with the Musselmalet Mega pattern is ready and went to get it. I'm really happy about the result:

Hope you like it too!

Kram,

Isabell

Flee market treasures

Autumn is when my flee market season starts. You have them all over Munich and sometimes you can get real treasures like the 2 dishtowels I found that have never been used. They are perfect for Christmas to decorate the oven or I think about sewing them together to use it as a pillowcase:

What I like about flee markets is the fact that you can get really nice things that sometimes even aren't produced any longer nowadays for a good price. And you can turn pieces that might look odd at the very first impression into great pieces just by changing the color.

I look so much forward to showing you the final decoration.

Kram,

Isabell

Musselmalet Mega pattern- DIY

I don't know if you remember my post about the Musselmalet Mega pattern and that I wanted to create a birthday present for my friend. I went there today and it was really great fun. You can choose between different ceramic styles : cups, plates, Christmas ball ornaments... and also the colors of course.  You might think that the base coat looks a little bit bluish, and you're right, but they told me it will be white as soon as it gets fired.

I'll have to wait some days until I get the final result, so you and me have to be patient ;)

Have a great evening!

Isabell

Filmjölk and Pepparkakor

Do you know this feeling when you come home hungry and you're just too tired to cook? Today for me this is one of these days. I just came home from work and I need something simple with sugar. The best thing for me in this case is filmjölk and pepparkakor ( gingerbread), the slightly sour taste together with the sweet cinnamon flavor is just perfect:

Filmjölk is something I only know from Scandinavia, haven't found it anywhere else yet. It's a similar taste to buttermilk, but still different. I can't describe the taste, you'll have to taste it yourself! :)

Kram,

Isabell

House lantern

End of September was always the time to make lanterns in my childhood and it is strongly connected to autumn, dark nights and the lantern procession with all the other children. This memory came into my mind when I saw this wooden House lantern, so I couldn't resist and had to buy it. I will have a look at the different transparent papers tomorrow after work. I think it would look great if the windows would have different warm colours like a real lantern, wouldn't it?

Hope to be able to give you an update soon... :)

Kram,

Isabell

Preparations for winter

I'm very structured and I can plan things up into the tiniest detail at work ( because it's my job). But when it comes to my private life, I'm just the contrary. It seems like all that planning energy goes into my business life and there is no or little energy left for home for that. So I have started to make "preparation for winter" lists for our home. And one of the things on it is to stow away my bicycle, which I've managed to do today, as well as Tim's bicycles.

Photo: 1zoom.me

It feels really good to be able to cross out some private to do's on that list and be unstructured again for the rest. :)

Have a really good night!

Isabell

Lemon - Ginger Tea

This is the cozy season, but also the season of sore throats, colds and flu. One of the best hot drinks in the cold season is lemon-ginger tea with honey. The heat and the ginger warms you right up, the lemon and the ginger soothe your scratchy throat.

Photo: natuerlichkreativ.blog

Here is what you need:

1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger (no need to peel it)
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp. honey, plus more to taste

Preparation:

Put the ginger in a medium sized bowl. Pour 1 cup boiling water over it and let steep for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, put the lemon juice and the honey in a large mug and strain the ginger tea into the mug.Stir and add more honey or lemon juice if you like.

Kram,

Isabell

Wasa Kanel knäckebröd - Wasa's cinnamon crispbread

It's high time for all the good spices like cardamom and cinnamon! I found a shop online which has all the Swedish food I like and delivers it right home to me and one of the things I was really longing for is Wasa's cinnamon crispbread or how we call it in Swedish: kanel knäckebröd. The moment you open the package, you can smell the great flavour of cinnamon and you can just eat it like it is or what I do is to add salted butter. I love the mix of salty and sweet, be brave and try it ! :)

What I also like is of course the way the paper wrapped around the cripsbread is decorated, with the Swedish Lucia, Santa Clause, the Christmas tree... great to have it when you can't already start to decorate. It wasn't me  :)

Have a great evening!

Isabell

Ikea's Christmas 2013

Inspired by the snowflakes on Thursday... some pictures what Ikea's Christmas looks like in 2013! They've already started to sell Christmas decoration and I can't wait to get there and have a look at it...

Photo: IKEA

Photo: IKEA

Photo: IKEA

My favorite items this year are ( so far :)):

Photo: IKEA

Photo: IKEA

Photo: IKEA

Kram,

Isabell

Autumn fashion

It's high time to put away all summer clothes and to move it to the rear part of my closet and to transform from the breezy summer clothing to warmer and heavier winter clothing. While I pulled out the coats and sweaters, I found some items that I have kept for years and I haven't had them on one single day, like my turtleneck pullover with short sleeves, very nice but always uncomfortable as it is too cold during winter and too hot during summer. I guess you also have some of these items, right? And then there are thing that you wear most of the time during winter and they are really worn but you can't get rid of them because they are so cosy or have a special memory. For me switching from summer to winter also means deciding what to keep and what to give to my younger sister who is always happy when I tidy up my closet. And the best thing is you create new space for this year's autumn fashion.... :)

  

Photo: Hallhuber

 

Photo: H & M

Photo: Hallhuber

Photo: H & M

Kram,

Isabell

Snowflakes everywhere

I couldn't believe it when I looked outside the window at work today: huge snowflakes were falling down and I felt the same joyful feeling that I always have when it starts to snow for the first time and my favourite season is near: Christmas. I'm one of these persons that already starts to think about Christmas in August and everywhere I'm traveling and everywhere that I am and I find something that is linked to Christmas I just can't resist... like this spatula from Martha Stewart's holiday collection, which I've bought in the US on my last holiday. For now it is stowed away, but I'm really looking forward to using it while baking Christmas cookies and showing it to you!

Photo: Martha Stewart Holiday Collection at Macy's

Have a great first snow day!

Isabell

Bed from Boconcept

I got a flu as there is a difference of over 20°C between Munich and Laguna Beach. So I spent the last few days with tissues and herb tea in bed. And what a bed! Since 4 days we've got a new bed from the Danish brand Boconcept, which we bought after our wedding. Tim and I had to wait for over 8 weeks and it feels good to sleep in such a big bed, especially if you're ill.

Photo:boconcept

I'll show you some pictures as soon as I'm feeling better.

Have a good night, I'll try to sleep now.

Isabell

Back home again from California

I can't believe that our holidays are over. These 2 weeks went by so quickly, that it feels like we've only been in California for a few days. Now I'm back home, I've started to work again the next day ( very hard due to the jet lag (9 hours time difference), I've already had this "close my eyes and just sleep I don't care if I'm at work" moment when I had to force myself to not use my desk as a pillow :). But it should be fine in a few days and I look so much forward to the weekend, to go outside in the forest and pick some leaves and chestnuts for decoration. I found a very nice picture in H&M 's home collection which I want to show you, I like the vase with just a few branches very much:

Photo: H & M

So I'll have to get some branches as well this weekend. :)

Have a nice evening!

Isabell