roasted hokkaido pumkin soup & chocolate banana brownies with peanut butter streusel

Sorry for the long title, I just couldn't leave any of these wonderful words out.

This sounds like real it's-cold-and-wet-and-autumn-outside comfort food - and it is. I really enjoy eating things like that at the moment... I think the colour of the pumpkins is just perfect and makes you happy.

I apologize for not presenting a picture of the finished soup - I just had to eat it and couldn't be bothered taking pictures and running the risk of the soup cooling...

Anyway, it's really easy to make and you should try it. Put the sliced pumpkin together with some onions, garlic and thyme in a saucer. Drizzle generously olive oil and honey and add salt and pepper. Put it into the oven until it looks roasted - for me, this took about 45 mins. After that, you just need to blend everything and add as much cream as you prefer. Honey, garlic and roasting add a wonderful taste to this soup!

Have a yummy day!

w is for weekend

I know it's not quite the time yet, but there are so many pumkins on the markets, plus, I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing on halloween this year, since the due date is 1st November.
So I decided it's the time for pumpkin carving right now.

The weather felt so much like autumn, too! We had these beautiful skies that you only get in late summer or early fall.

On the weekend, we:

• bought pumpkins on a farmer's market and carved them
• ate two 200g bars of chocolate
• got fabric for a baby blanket
• crashed the kitchen table and built it up again
• went for a huge walk in the woods
  
• made progress in the nursery
• had roasted salmon, fresh ricotta & spinach ravioli and mushrooms for dinner

Weekends are so nice!

elephants & cubes

Yesterday, I spent pretty much all sunny warm day outside with a friend and her baby in the parc. Today, it's raining and I don't plan on leaving the house whatsoever. Which means: Lots of crafting time. The elephants above make a crackling noise as they're touched - somebody told me babies liked that. We'll see.
I've seen cubes similar to these here, except they were knitted (and quite expensive). I didn't want to spend more money on baby's stuff than I already did in the past few weeks. And I can't knit, so I decided to chose the sewing alternative. They're super soft and I really like touching and playing with them - so we're safe in case the baby won't like it.

Ps. I received my fabulous apron from lovely Venus - I'll take some pics on the weekend to share with you. Have a wonderful Friday!

that thing for foxes.

With the weather getting more and more autumny, I have developed a thing for foxes. I don't really know why, we could just blame it on the pregnancy (like everything else). I just think they make the best motif for all different kinds of things right now.

Here are some of the loveliest little foxes I found on Etsy:

foureyedgirldesigns

sleepyking

minitoes

MarMarz

and the winner is...

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Thanks everybody for joining the giveaway game, this was so much fun. Today I would like to announce Rosenzucker as the winner of the postcard set. Rosenzucker, please send me your contact details so I can mail it to you!

Ps. You should go and check out stealinghearts' flickr, it's adorable.

Pps. Plans for today: Yoga class in the afternoon, after that J's grandmother is coming over to bake pancakes for us.

who ate all the cupcakes?

It must've been him! He looks quite innocent but won't you trust him.

I think these our our new favourites - red velvet with the yummiest icing I've ever tried. (Are you wondering why they're not really red? I started putting *lots* of food colouring in, but they wouldn't turn redder, so at some point I felt uncomfortable and stopped...)

The icing contains melted marshmallows, cream cheese and shredded coconut, which was just deliciously sweet and gooey.

black forest & vintage dresses

hello everybody,
just to let you quickly know that we're back from a wonderful, late summer weekend. on saturday we went a little bit shopping and i found a lovely vintage store.


couldn't really try the skirt and dress on, haha, so basically i just looked at it and thought "looks fine". let's hope they will fit once the bump is gone. i just couldn't resist because i instantly fell in love with the stuff and also, everything was just 50 euros.

the shoes i could try, at least. i think they're my new favourites! they're nice soft leather and hardly used.

anyway - if the clothes won't fit i know what they're future purpose will be:


ps. thanks for leaving your lovely comments for the giveaway - i'll choose a winner tomorrow.

off to the black forest

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Have a happy weekend!

pouching along

It's crazy how productive one can be if there's plenty of time! In my last post, I told you that I was so looking forward to have a day just to myself - and my lovely Singer sewing machine. What shall I say - it was truly wonderful.

Again I'm basically amazed by two things: First, how nice it is to acutally see the results of your hands' work. It is so much more satisfying than brain work that I usually do.

Second amazement: How I keep sewing and sewing and my fabric piles won't get smaller.

Which, on the one hand, is nice because it gives me the very comforting feeling of being able to keep on sewing forever. On the other hand, it makes me nervous since I'm impatiently waiting for my next visit at the fabric store.

Also, I am in some way unable to entirely use a piece of fabric - do you know what I mean? I have many fabrics that I really love - and it seems I can just never use all of it, because then it would be gone.

See - I'm all prepared for christmas!

Ps. Today, I will try my first batch of Red Velvet Cupcakes using this recipe. Also, I'm looking forward to a little walk in the woods since it's the nicest Autumn weather today!

Pps. Tomorrow, we're going on a short trip to the Black Forest, celebrating the 30th birthday of a very dear friend. Keep the fingers crossed for the weather so I can bring back some beautiful photos!

how could I possibly...

...turn 30 without knowing such a thing as cake pops existed?

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Seriously, this is the most adorable sweet thing I've ever seen - besides cupcakes, of course. They are definitely something I need to try very soon! They can be found in the sweetest variations for all ocassions - Halloween, Christmas... You absolutely need to browse through Bakerellas lovely creations, she's the unchallenged Mistress of Cake Pops, I reckon.

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Have a sweet day!

Ps. I had been dealing with several kinds of mechanics the past couple of days which I found quite annoying because what you do most of the time is just sitting around and waiting. Today is a wonderful day just for myself, so here are my plans for today:

• Spend all day in my studio with my sewing machine and my many many fabrics
• Eat the leftovers for lunch: Homemade spinach ricotta ravioli with roasted tomatos
• Read a bit in my favourite blogs
  
• Tonight, we're going to see a friend of ours play theatre
  

etsy favourites of the day

Kitty teacup by KoideStudio - so adorable!

Owl pillow by robinandmould

Granny chic ecofriendly clutches by karuski

Pretty skirt by thesimpson

Have a lovely day!

food is the best.

Well, not only food. But good food. Healthy food. Homemade food. Staying home, I have so much more time for preparing nice meals which I really enjoy. Yesterday we had leftovers of broccoli soup together with some improvised Bruschetta - see above. I used rye bread, drizzled over some olive oil, salt and pepper. Then, I mixed some feta with some thyme and dried tomatoes. This went on the bread to be topped with a few drops of honey - and into the oven for a couple of minutes.


After savoury food I always need something sweet - and, luckily, it's the season of apples and blueberry which I both love. I put them in a pan together with butter, sugar, some vanilla and cinnamon. Afterwards, the go on a big piece of pre-baked shortcrust and are topped with almond crumbles - made with marzipan, brown sugar and flaked almonds. Good!

creative chaos

Well, as I look at the picture, it doesn't even look that chaotic. But it feels like it when I'm in there. When I sit at that table with my crafting equipment I forget almost everything around me - time, eating, drinking (I even find having to go to the toilet really annoying).

That is why that chair is one of the best places on earth for me.

What about you - how do you feel in your crafting zone?

giveaway day

Today is Giveaway Day!

In the last weeks I've been crafting like crazy and J forced me to give stuff away ;) No, seriously, I thought it was time for a Giveaway because I think it's such a nice thing to do and makes blogs so lovely.

Today, I would like to give away a set of 5 cards with envelopes with sweet hand printed cupcakes. They come in a lined silky fabric case to keep them cozy when not used :) Perfect for keeping in touch with loved ones!

Just leave a comment in the comment section and let me know why you think people should eat more cupcakes! I'll pick the person with the nicest reason after a couple of days.

Ps. I think I'll be doing this more regularly now - watch out blog friends (especially those with wee ones)!

pouch, poucher, pouchest

Today was pouch day. Inspired by so many adorable projects on flickr, I went trough my fabric piles and rummaged for some zippers to make a couple of all-purpose-you can-never-have-enough-of-them pouches. Also, I was desperately looking for something to use the lovely elephant trim I got recently.



Ps. Friday is Giveaway day! Here's a sneak peak of what I'll be giving away. Small hint: It will help you keep in touch with your loved ones and has to do with my favourite pastry.

disapproval day.

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I think my favourite one is HUH.

Somewhat fits the Not-To-Do Lists:

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It's nice to be all happy and content, but sometimes you just need one of these grumpy anti-days.

no better way to start a day...

...nor to end it, actually.

I know, I know, I said I was going to eat really healthy, but here's my excuse:
1. These are leftovers from my farewell party at work. And it wouldn't help anyone to just throw them away, right?
2. I had a big bowl of fruit and yogurt before that.

Have a sweet day!

french acorns & autumny feelings

Autumn is here! Yesterday, we went out for a long walk, and I could smell it in every breeze. I love this time of the year since it reminds me of happy childhood moments walking around in the woods with my mum and collecting all these natural products that for a child seem to be so wondrously amazing. Unlike in the rest of the world, here you could collect and take home whatever you liked, you didn't have to ask anyone, you didn't have to pay for it, you didn't have to hurry and you could do with it whatever you wanted.

This little acorn hat that turned into a Frenchman on my finger reminded me of those days.

Hope you're having wonderful autumn days!

Ps. I'm at home now with plenty of extra crafting time... so watch out for new crafting projects including a give away this week!

veggie's delight

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Recently, I discovered this mouth-watering blog which is run by a lovely Aussie lady, Trudy. The closer the birth gets (and, obviously, the more time I have), the more I start thinking about what life will be like once the baby is here.

A very important part of life has always been food for me, and so I want it to be for this new little person on earth. I never really liked meat and I completely stopped eating it with 15 - 15 years ago. This was back in the mid-90s and in the countryside of Germany - so you might be able to imagine what a big thing it was. Back then, it was nearly impossible to find restaurants where you could order vegetarian meals (I have traumatizing memories of cooked-until-dead broccoli with tons of fat sauce hollandaise) and none of my family members were vegetarian.

Eyerybody thought something must be wrong with me and doctors hardly could believe that my body actually wasn't missing anything important.

Anyway, I'm very glad times have changed (when I first found out I was pregnant my doctor told me I couldn't eat raw meat like salami, so I told her I didn't eat meat at all. In anticipation of some kind of disapproval, I was quite surprised as she said: Oh, that's great!). And I'm glad I'll actually be able to give my kids the choice weather they want to eat meat or not, without anyone telling them horror stories about what will happen if you don't eat meat.