FOOD: Rezept für Gugelhupf mit kandierten Magnolienblüten und Karamell Zuckerguss

Guten Abend meine Lieben!

Ich melde mich nach langer Abstinenz wieder zurück. Das letzte Jahr war ein Albtraum, aus dem ich mich Anfang diesen Jahres befreien konnte und nun kehren, mit der immer wärmer werdenden Sonne und den Blüten auch das Leben zurück.

Ich schwelge in Spaziergängen durch meine Heimatstadt Baden-Baden in der üppigen Blütenpracht rund um die Trinkhalle, das Kurhaus und die Lichtentaler Allee und neue Ideen fangen an, in meinem Kopf an Gestalt zu gewinnen.

Eine dieser Ideen möchte ich heute mit euch teilen.

Habt ihr schon mal Magnolienblüten gekostet? Ja, richtig gelesen! Magnolienblütenblätter zählen zu den essbaren Blumen und haben ein angenehmes Aroma von Aprikose in Verbindung mit blumigen Nuancen. Es gibt Magnolienarten, die nicht essbar sind, die bekanntesten allerdings, nämlich die Tulpenmagnolie (bzw. auch Tulpenbaum genannt) und die Sternmagnolie sind bedenkenlos verzehrbar. Von ersterem habe ich Blätter gesammelt und sie für einen ganz besonderen Kuchen verarbeitet.

Gugelhupf mit kandierten Magnolienblüten und Karamell Zuckerguss

Dafür war in an einem meiner Lieblingsbäume an der Trinkhalle, und dort habe ich bereits so viele Blätter sammeln können, dass es für die Garnitur des Kuchens, für den Teig und auch für besondere Magnolienmarmelade gereicht hat. Dieses Rezept werde ich auch gerne mit euch teilen, wenn Interesse besteht!

DIY: Erstelle persönliche Briefmarken mit deinen eigenen Bildern.

 

Anzeige | Auch im heutigen Post geht es wieder um das Schreiben und das verschicken haptischer Grüße an die Menschen, die einem am Herzen liegen. Im vorigen Post schrieb ich über die wundervolle Aktion von MyPostcard und der Deutschen Post, in der eine Million gratis Postkarten im Kampf gegen das Corona-Virus zur Verfügung gestellt werden.

Heute geht es um die Webseite DeineBriefmarke.de, welche es euch ermöglicht, persönliche Briefmarken mit euren eigenen Bildern zu erstellen und auf euren Briefen und Postkarten zu verwenden.

DIY: Ideen für den Lockdown | Alten Bilderrahmen neues Leben verleihen.

 

Anzeige | Viele von euch werden sich jetzt zum zweiten Lockdown (wenn auch noch "light") so fühlen, als würde euch die Decke auf den Kopf fallen. Was ich verstehen kann ... generell hätte dieses Jahr für mich so ganz anders ausgesehen, als es dann doch ausgesehen hatte. Und das stellte sich im Nachhinein in den meisten Dingen als "blessing in disguise" aus. Zwar konnte ich nicht reisen, aber dafür habe ich meine Liebe zu Gärtnern entdeckt, gelernt Hüte zu schneidern, einen neuen Onlineshop für Vintage Mode und Selbstgeschneidertem ins Leben gerufen, mein viertes und fünftes Buch veröffentlicht und den wahren Charakter von sogenannten "Freunden" erfahren.

Und nachdem ich bereits meinen alten Bambusschrank neu lackiert habe, habe ich nun dasselbe auch mit ein paar alten Mahagoni Bilderrahmen vorgehabt, denen ich neues Leben einhauchen wollte. Denn nichts geht über Upcycling! Es ist nachhaltig, es macht Spaß und ist günstig und bringt neuen, frischen Wind in die Wohnung.

 

Inspiration: Mit einem neuen Anstrich alten Möbeln neues Leben verleihen.

Da der Lockdown uns alle mehr oder weniger dazu zwingt, die meiste Zeit zuhause zu verbringen, kann man die Zeit positiv und mit Mehrwert verbringen.

Ich zum Beispiel telefoniere und chatte viel mit meiner Familie und meinen liebsten Menschen, habe mehr Zeit zum Lesen (und dieses Jahr schon 20 Bücher gelesen), habe meinen englischen Gedichtband 'Within the event horizon' veröffentlicht und habe überlegt, wie ich meine Wohnung verschönern kann.

In einem meiner vorigen Posts berichtete ich euch bereits darüber, wie man mit einfachen Mitteln tolle Möbelstücke selbst herstellen kann.
Heute zeige ich euch mein neues DIY Projekt. Ich entschied mich dazu, meinem alten Bambusschrank im Wohnzimmer einen neuen Anstrich zu verpassen. Bereits vor ein paar Jahren habe ich zwei alte Schränke aus dunklem Holz neues Leben eingehaucht, in dem ich sie weiß lackierte.
Das hatte ich diesmal auch mit meinem Bambusschrank vor.

 

Inspiration: Mit Do it Yourself das Zuhause verschönern.

Zuhause, das bedeutet Wohlfühlen. Eine schöne Einrichtung, passend zum eigenen Geschmack. Ein paar Pflanzen, bequeme Möbel. Doch wenn man sich seine Traumeinrichtung holen möchte, dann kostet das meistens viel Geld.

Doch selbst ist der Mann und die Frau! Warum immer kaufen, wenn man es auch selbst machen kann? Egal ob ein stylischer Kleiderständer, ein Gewürzregal oder ein Sideboard fürs Wohnzimmer. Mit ein bisschen Kreativität und Geschick lässt sich schnell ein Unikat zaubern, das den Wohnraum verschönert.

In diesem Artikel zeige ich euch ein paar Dinge, die Sie leicht Zuhause bauen können. Ich wünsche euch viel Spaß beim Umsetzen!

CHRISTMAS: DIY - how to create your own advent calendar.

[en] hi peeps! i love to be creative and i love handmade things. in my onlineshop i can express myself and my passion for many years. this year le boy and me decided to create our own advent calendar for the holiday season, and not to buy it at the supermarket or elsewhere. today i want to give you some advices on how easy it is to create your own pretty and individual advent calendar. i also show you some impressions of our own one. i guess it turned out quite well :)

it all begins with the selection of the right advent calendar bags, which you can fill up with little gifts and treats. there are no limits being set to the imagination. you can craft them yourself with beautiful velvet fabric in festive colours such as gold, red, emerald green. cut it into squares. take your own individual fillings and put them into the middle of the fabric. use a cord in fitting contrast colours with which you can close the bags afterwards. hang them on the wall or somewhere else, for example your christmas tree, if it is already set.

you can also buy prefabricated bags. we decided to take prefabricated ones this year, because we have loads to do at work at the moment. le boy had the idea that we could hang the advent calendar bags on our dream tree in the bedroom.

those who want to save the mural, can fall back on a wall tattoo in the form of a tree. the bags can eventually be attached to the tree with needle pins.

you don't need to remove the wall tattoo afterwards. after the holiday season it could decorate your home further on.

number cards can easily be crafted with cardboard and typographic skills. but you can also buy prefabricated ones in different beautiful designs online. we decided on THIS SET. the different days are numbers which have to be calculated (11+11), they are written out in english or german or displayed as pretty ornaments.

on DaWanda you will find a greatselection of nice fillings for your advent calendar. or you can fill up your single bags with homebaked delicacies, with gathered chestnuts, with gemstones, origami creations and so much more … there are no limits being set to the imagination.

do you love DIY as much as we do?

have you ever crafted your own advent calendar?

what do you love most about the advent season?

HANDMADE: colourful origami butterflies.

INTERIOR LOVE: painting furniture white.

there was a day when something disturbed my ideal of beauty when i came into the living room. the feeling of disturbance grow as days flew past. and then i suddenly recognized that i really hated my black CD shelf and both of my brown book shelves. they simply didn't fit into the concept of the rest of the room. they didn't fit to the pink and white coloured walls. they made the whole room look shabby, not chic. they somewhat made it all look a bit dirty. chaotic, but not in a creative, but very unsophisticated way. and i simply HATED this view so much so that i had the huge urge to change that sight immediately.

i bought wood varnish in white at the local supermarket and prepositioned paint brushes of several sizes and also a paint roller of those kinds we also used to paint the walls with. i used the latter for the CD shelf and the most extensive parts of both book shelves. 
but the finishing touch was the hardest part of the work. 
the book shelf was lying on the floor and with small paint brushes i painted the small, still brown parts, most of the time bent forward with all my body.

it was loads of work.

INTERIOR LOVE: painting glasses white.

since most of the decoration and furniture in my kitchen is white i wanted all of my vases to look like that, too. unfortunately i didn't have so many white vases but on several blogs i have read about the idea to use pickle glasses of different shapes and colouring them white so that one can use them as small vases afterwards. i liked this idea very much and thus i gathered loads and loads of them, bought varnishing spray in white and started my new DIY project!

what is most important is that you're working outside (if possible) and that you've got enough support surface because the spray will have a huge diameter. thus i have chosen some of my old moving boxes. with a distance of approx. you should stick to a distance of 15-30cm between they spray and the glass you want to colour. in a few hours the glass should be dry. but precautionary i have waited one day or 24h until i put them back inside.

another time you're getting best results for less work. i love the look of the new vases. the different shapes add a fun and also sophisticated twist on the table.

INTERIOR LOVE: painting frames white.

today i want to show you another DIY project i have started and finished some time ago. i already reported about my other vintage frame project earlier this year. you might have read about it here: click. 

now i had some more wooden frames which were made of ordinary and somewhat boring brown wood and i wanted to colour them white, so that they would fit into my kitchen where the colour white somewhat prevailed. 

again i used wood varnish. i have painted with a big brush and a smaller one for the finishing touch. it also didn't take as long as the first time, but now i only had four small photo frames, and i also needed a single layer of varnish.

i must admit that although you're not doing much you've got a very huge change. the look of the frames is so much different and i was very satisfied with the end result.

INTERIOR LOVE: painting a tree.

my dears, after a long pause i want to show you some more preparations for my new flat. i had the idea in my mind to paint my new bedroom blue - indeed it turned out to be a nice petrole blue (called lagune by schoener wohnen room colours), you might have also seen the colour in one of my previous posts (click) or on my instagram accound (click). 
and onto this blue colour i wanted to paint an ornamental and curly black tree with green leaves and golden blossoms. i have sketched a design of it onto a piece of DIN A 4 paper and carried it with me until the house moving was finished. i loved the idea to give all of my rooms a natural and vintage touch.

i have already started to paint the bedroom of my dreams and today i want to show you some impressions about the making of. it's not finished yet, it will still take some time, but it already looks very, very lovely and i'm very proud of my work ♥

i have painted the tree freehand. previously i only sketched out the contours with a pencil, then i started filling it out with black emulsion paint which i have bought at the DIY market.

so, what do you think of it? do you like my design and work so far?

INTERIOR LOVE: vintage frames and crosses get a new shabby chic style.

hello guys! some time ago i had the idea that white country style furniture and shabby chic decoration would fit perfectly into my new, colourful home - thus i took the decision to coat those many many old vintage frames i have found in the cellar earlier and the old wooden cross from my great grandmother with beautiful cream white paint i have bought in the diy market, among the wall paint and brushes. 

i have finished both the frames and the cross on the second attempt, because first i have coated the surface and afterwards the bottom. well i have never thought that this could be so much work (totalled up i have worked for nearly 4 hours), but i guess that it was worth it, if i look upon the final outcome.

INTERIOR LOVE: renovating my new home.

my lovely ones! now i'll finally show you the pictures of the renovating process (... which we have finished yesterday - yay!) - you cannot imagine how much fun it was to shop for the new colourful wall paint and accessories such as paint brushes, rollers, acrylic paint and wood varnishes. i simply love diy markets - and that's not simply because of the name ... in german we call it 'baumarkt', it's less romantic and creativity enunciating than the english term, don't you think?

i already thought that painting the walls would become an arduous work, because our second last flat has been painted by a professional painter, and he has been rewarded with more than 1000€ (and he still made a very good offer). he processed 150 square meters in 3 days. when i was younger i wondered why he had taken so much time - but now i can understand XD ... at least since yesterday i'm suffering from a bad leg, or rather knee, i've got bruised arms, and - for the very first time in my life - blisters, on my HANDS! can you imagine that? that's amazing haha XD ... i have never had blisters there, not even when i had to work upon bulk orders for 1000 cranes for the MBFW or schloss einstein which i have finished in 3-4 days.

... but still i cannot be happier, really. it was so much fun painting the walls with those beautiful trend colours from schöner wohnen (orchidee and lagune) - while working i have slowly realized that this place will be my new home ... for the next years, or longer! and i sensed an enlarging sense of joy in my heart. when i sat outside on my balcony, watching my beautiful big and richly green spruce, i felt happy. really happy. i felt at home. i looked inside, saw all the covering sheets, the empty paint pots and the beautifully coloured rooms in pink and blue, and i felt happy. i thought: yes. now i'm home.

i can't even begin to tell you how happy i am, how much i love this new feeling.

i'm at home.

INTERIOR LOVE: door bell nameplates.

guys i need your help! i have made some door bell nameplates for my new flat ... which of these should i choose? what do you think? ... i especially like no. 7 because of it's clean and fashionable chic and no. 4 because ... i'm truly a potterhead, and i would love the fact that anyone who stops by could see that ♥

don't forget to participate in the best of the blogs campaign for june 14!

dawanda - bloglovin - facebook - lookbook

jam jar moments 2014.

i have already wrote about jam jar moments before, you might have read about it here: click! the idea is to '... start the year off with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good things that happen. on new years eve, empty it and see what awesome stuff happened that year.'

my jam jar for 2013 was so full with beautiful and colourful notes i had something to read for more than 2 hours - unbelievable how many beautiful things can happen to you during a single year, no mather how tiny they seem. life is full of beauty and hope - we all should remember that ...

i have already started my jam jar for 2014 in the first days of januaryand a fifth is already filled.

my first photo book / sedcard / model book ♥

some days ago i received my very first photobook. my father had won a voucher for an albelli photobook recently. he gave the code to me and adviced me to make a booklet with the best shots from my previous fashion shootings. i believed that this was a quite nice idea so i heeded it and there it is! i think it looks quite nice. the quality is good and the cover is quite fashionable. i'm very pleased. the book features photos from cw foto (click), foto speyer (click) and itechkast photography (click). 

you can purchase your very own photobook here.

HANDMADE: my first harry potter inspired jewellery - felix felicis pendant ♥

don't forget to participate in the best of the blogs campaign!

dawanda - bloglovin - facebook - lookbook

HANDMADE: guitar brooch goes hollywood!

don't forget to participate in the best of the blogs campaign!

dawanda - bloglovin - facebook - lookbook

HANDMADE: me + the umasan spring/summer 2014 fashion show - 5th of july 2013 ♥

jam jar moments 2013.

today i want to show you a little almost-tutorial, at least a very beautiful idea to brighten up your home, which  i have found recently on liv's amazing and creative blog 'thank you for eating'. you should really stop by there! she picked up an idea or project which she has found on many tumblr's and co. - it was called 'jam jar moments 2013'. the idea is to '... start 2013 off with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good things that happen. on new years eve, empty it and see what awesome stuff happened that year.'