Buns and sticks

Every hair type has its merits and drawbacks. For instance, fine hair may not have much volume and tends to limply hang down but it’s easy to pull into an updo. To be honest, I can’t help but feel a bit envious when I see girls with buns as if there’s no such thing as gravity. My own hair would need tons and tons of bobby pins and hairspray to achieve this hair style. And truth to be told, I can’t handle bobby pins. Backpinning? How does that work?

So I resigned myself to never be able to pull off that kind of hair. However, as often in live you discover new things that open doors that were closed to you before. In this case, it was the discovery of the hair stick.

Instructions:

On each side of your head braid one half French braid till you reach the ear, only including new strands into the side that’s closest to your face. From there, do a regular braid to the end and fix with a hair tie. Now gather all of your hair into a low ponytail and braid another regular braid. Fix with a hair tie. Now hold up your braid with one hand, the other hand holds the hair stick. Push the hair stick against the hair in the middle of the braid. Fold the braid over the hair stick  and rotate the stick so that the braid twists around itself and everything is pulled tight. Insert the hair stick to fix.

If you aren’t used to hair sticks that part may be difficult but don’t give up! The key to stability is knowing how to handle your hair length. Short hair will need fewer twists as long hair, more twists will hold your hair better. Try to coordinate your twists so that the ends will disappear underneath the bun and at the same time you can easily insert the hair stick. To do so push the hair stick from above, below or from the side against the braid to rotate.

DIY: They’re fluttering away

Plain white walls are good for one reason: You can cover them up with everything. So when I saw the butterflies at Living with Punks, I knew what to do with the bare wall above my bed but a more mature, elegant version.

Instead of colorful cardstock I opted for silver cardstock with a mirror effect. The light bounces of the reflecting surface and looks beautiful that way. In addition, the cardstock cost me nothing since I recycled one box of Dickmann’s Schaumküsse (German chocolate marshmallows)! A very easy and fast DIY that’s even cheap – how great is that? And don’t you just love the way the butterflies seem to fly away from the peonies?

Basil heaven

I like to challenge myself. To not take the easy way out. Instead of eating only dried pasta I like to make my own sometimes. I prefer home made pudding (with eggs, starch, vanilla, sugar and milk) to the one that comes from pudding powder. I can’t stand jarred tomato sauce because I’m used to Mum’s one with chunky tomatoes. So when it comes to pesto, of course I have to prepare it myself.

Pesto is easy to make and quick – if you are in possession of a food processor. If you don’t, then there are still mortar and pestle and the knife, of course. Since I have neither a food processor nor a mortar and pestle, I had to resort to the knife. It is more time-consuming but so worth it. As you chop the ingredients a wonderful smell rises. Have you ever smelt basil leaves? I love to breath in the smell while watering my basil plant.

The recipe is from 101cookbooks.com. I couldn’t figure out how much a bunch of  basil was that’s why I ended up using all leaves from my basil plant. But compared to the amount of parmesan that seemed to be too little. But it still tasted amazing! And it looked beautiful, a vibrant green color, very different from the muted yellowish store bought pesto. Since I eat alone the amount this recipe yielded was too much for one serving, so I put the rest into an ice cube tray and into the freezer.

Let them bloom

There is nothing that brightens up a room like flowers. They add warmth and personality to the space. And color, of course. But flowers are also expensive in the long run. They may last two weeks before they’ll start wilting and need to be replaced. Blooming plants are more cost-efficient since they bloom several times. But they don’t flower all the time and require a certain amount of light, so you can’t put them everywhere. This leaves artificial flowers. While there are some that look fake from far away (and cheap) there are also some that really fool your eye.

How do you find these roses? They are gorgeous, aren’t they? Moreover, they come in every color and are super affordable – since you make them out of coffee filters! The instructions can be found on Martha Stewart’s web page and there’s a very thorough video on Youtube.

Some thoughts on them:

• If you don’t have the floral tape at home, go and buy it. Making the roses is much easier with it, scotch tape can’t compare. Floral tape stretches so that you can adjust the petals later on.
• Go for white coffee filters. In Germany the brown ones are more common but they don’t bring out bright colors. I needed 6 coffee filters to make one rose, so with a pack of 80 I got 13 roses.
• I used water color to paint, the ones that are often used in primary school.

Chocolate, nuts and toffee: This cookie has got them all

These are the best cookies I’ve ever baked. They are crunchy. They have chocolate bits and nuts. And the best of all: They have toffee. Amazing, chewy, delicious toffee. I made a batch at Easter and they were that popular that my brother had to fight tooth and nail to save some for school! No kidding. He smuggled the cookie jar out of the kitchen and hid it somewhere. Guess, I have to make another batch soon.

The recipe is from Linh’s Kitchen, a blog I recently found. Her lemon squares recipe is excellent!

Some notes on the recipe:

• Instead of butter I used margarine. That might be the reason why 30 min chilling was not enough, the dough war quite soft. I had to chill for 2 h.
• Because of the soft texture of the dough there’s no need for an electric mixer. Just make sure that your bowl is big enough.
• Instead of pecans I used almonds. Pecans aren’t easy to get in Germany.
• Don’t chop the ingredients too small. You want to notice the bits.
• Keep enough space between the cookie log pieces. I ended up with hexagonal cookies because  they were placed too close on two baking trays. Next time I’m going to use three.

Dancing the Tangerine Tango

Everywhere I turn my eyes to, this bright color keeps popping up. The Dior Croisette collection, the Sephora and Pantone collection – vibrant orange is huge this year. Pantone’s color of the year, Tangerine Tango, has certainly made an impact on the make up industry. I’ve seen lipsticks, blush and nail polish in this particular color. And where make up goes, fashion is never far away.

I shop by color. When I’m in a store I do a 360° turn and see if anything catches my eye. Color plays an important role when it comes to clothing. It can literally transform a look, can take it to an entirely different mood. I was made aware of this while trying on the dress. It was available in two color choices: Orange-red and navy blue. I tried the orange-red one first and was stunned. It looked so full of energy yet classy and elegant. The navy blue one, however, was a disappointment. So demure and serious and sad. Not my color at all.

L’Oréal Paris Color Infaillible in 004 Forever Pink

I don’t know when I started to like soft pink as an eyeshadow color. Maybe when I saw how often Michelle Phan would apply pink and peachy eyeshadows in her older videos and  looked great with them. I guess that was how it started.

The L’Oréal Paris Color Infaillible eyeshadows are loose pigments that are not loose. But they aren’t your typical pressed  eyeshadows, either. They’re very loosely pressed loose eyeshadows. Does that makes sense? A lot of blogs compare them to the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Intense Eyeshadow, they’re supposed to have a similar texture.

In Germany I’ve seen them for about 10€ at Rossmann but there’s no need to pay the full price! Rossmann regularly offers a 20% discount on L’Oréal cosmetics, so wait until then. And if you’re one of those lucky people who have those discount vouchers for 10% on everything, you can get an eyeshadow for 7€! Much better, isn’t it? But if you’re very impatient, go to dm, they’ve got them for 8€.

004 Forever Pink is a pale pink that has a metallic sheen and gold and pink glimmer. On the photos above you see the eyeshadow swatched on white eyeliner on the left, which dims the shine and draws out a pastel pink. On the right it’s swatched without anything underneath. It turns to a more rose gold color on my bare lids with a lovely shine, so no fear of a swollen eye look. I like to wear it on its own as a wash paired with a black eyeliner. Easy and pretty. No fuss with brushes, either.

Foolproof pasta dough recipe

Eating homemade pasta was a revelation. It’s so different from  dried pasta. Comparing dried and fresh pasta is like comparing cotton and silk. For fresh pasta has such a lovely silky texture! It’s amazing. You have to try it! And don’t be afraid of making the pasta dough, my mum came up with a recipe that even I can manage. The key is to pay attention to the texture of the dough. That’s it. You don’t need to measure the ingredients. Easy.

Ingredients: Flour, egg, olive oil

1) Put a small amount of flour into a bowl and crack the eggs into it. For one person, one egg suffices. Mix eggs and flour with one hand, the other hand pours more and more flour into the bowl.

2) Stop adding flour when the dough doesn’t stick to your hands anymore. At this point there may be some wet dough sticking to the bowl and your hands. Just sprinkle some flour on it and rub it off. You can see how clean the bowl and my hands are, which means that there is enough flour now.The dough will be quite firm and hard to knead. Add a bit of olive oil to get elasticity. Concentrate on the texture. It should shape easily but not stick. If it’s too dry add a TINY amount of water. Too much and the dough will be sticky again. Add flour if the dough feels too wet. Add olive oil if the dough is too firm.

3) Shape the dough into a ball and wrap it with plastic wrap. Let it sit for about 15 min.

4) Roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Dust the surface with flour so that the dough doesn’t stick.

5) Cut the pasta with a knife in the shape you desire. Put it on a plate, which has been rubbed with oil. It won’t stick then.

6) Drop the pasta into boiling water with salt. When the pasta is ready it will float on the surface. Don’t take it out immediately, check if it’s really ready. Serve.

Snake coiling around your head

There are days on which my straight hair bores me. It’s just … so straight. No waves and curls that create an interesting texture. How often have I wished to be born with curly hair! But then I  remember the fact that I’m lazy as hell and that my hair is super easy to take care of. Lately, I’ve went for this hair style when I wanted some texture. I especially like the way it looks from behind. And it’s so simple and stays the way it is all day. Without pins and without hairspray.

Instructions:

Start a French braid behind one ear and work your way to the other ear, taking up only hair to the strand that’s closest to your face. When you reach the other ear, continue braiding with the three strands you have until the end and fix it with a hair tie. Take the braid and tightly pull it behind your head towards the other ear. Take a strand from behind this ear and tie it with your braid. Remove the other hair tie. Hide the hair tie underneath a pretty barrette.

DIY: Make up pouch

Do you know the feeling when you’re looking for something but nothing appeals to you? Ugly, too big, too pricey. I search and search and find nothing. At some point I get angry and frustrated and then there are two paths I can go: Either I give up on it entirely or I make it myself. This time I decided to try to sew a small pouch for my make up.

There are really lovely patterns freely available on the Internet, I chose this one. Since I don’t have a sewing machine at my place it took some time to get everything done. But sewing by hand is pretty soothing and it’s a perfect pastime while watching House M.D.! I used the same lining fabric as on the pinboard and chose a red zipper and red thread for contrast. Since the fabric on its own wasn’t stiff enough I added felt between two layer of fabric. And voilà!