When I grow up, I want to be an interior designer

Although I don't live in my own home yet I still can't resist getting some cute homeware things when I see them. Just like these two cups I found the other day. They were in a sale...and then I saw the typography on the left hand side one and fell in love with it. Its the secret interior-designer in me speaking! 

Sunshine and beaches

This weekend has been pretty full and busy for my standards. If I'm not working on weekends I'm either usually not even in the country or I'm just hibernating at home resting and catching up with cooking or crafting.  This weekend however I've had a special visitor in the form of my boyfriend. He is definitely the kind of guy who likes to remain active throughout the day....a complete contrast to someone like me, who can quite happily spend the entire day doing absolutely nothing in particular and not moving from the same place!

Because the weather was supposed to be fairly sunny and not too cold we decided it would be a nice idea to visit an old quaint village in Kent called Rye. It's full of cute old buildings and cobbled streets, as well as unusual gift shops. It can be nice to spend an afternoon walking around exploring, especially if the weather is as good. 

The best part about Rye however is probably the fact that a short bus ride away or a short cycle ride away if you're lucky....(more about that in a minute) lies the beautiful sandy beach of Camber. You might not think a sandy beach is that special, but for someone who lives in England it definitely is, as we don't really get sandy beaches here but rather pebbly ones. Unfortunately by the time we got to the bike rental place it was closed already, but we plan to make up for that by renting some bikes today instead.

I could really have taken pictures at the beach all day long! 

Isn't it nice? And I think that the polaroid camera on my iPhone makes it look even better. 

And lastly, it's always nice to be given the opportunity to sit down at the beach and take in the world so easily as this :)

It may not be Christmas anymore...but....

Earlier on in December I made a Kugelhopf, which are mostly traditionally eaten around that time of year (but can also be enjoyed at any other time of the year as well). 

I thought I'd share the recipe with you because it's something I really enjoyed making and it's something that I think looks really pretty after it's finished.


1) Gather your ingredients: 

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (less than 1 envelope)

2 tablespoons warm water (105–115°F)

1 cup whole milk

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces and softened

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups golden raisins

1 teaspoon finely grated fresh orange or lemon zest

About 20 whole blanched almonds (1/2 ounces)

1 tablespoon confectioners sugar

2)  Stir together yeast and water in a small bowl and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

Heat milk with 6 tablespoons butter and granulated sugar over low heat, stirring, until mixture is warm (105 to 115°F), butter is melted, and sugar is dissolved.

3)Sift together flour and salt into bowl of standing mixer. Make a well in flour and add yeast mixture. Add warm milk in a slow stream, mixing at low speed with paddle attachment. Increase speed to medium and beat in eggs 1 at a time, then beat in raisins and zest. Continue to beat until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. (Dough will be very sticky.)

4)Butter kugelhopf mold with remaining tablespoon butter. Put 1 almond in each depression in bottom of mold (the almonds are only decorative; you can skip them altogether if your mold has no depressions), then scrape spoonfuls of dough evenly into mold (dough will be very elastic). Cover top of mold with oiled plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let dough rise in a warm place until it fills pan, about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

5)Remove towel from kugelhopf and gently peel off plastic wrap. Bake kugelhopf in middle of oven 15 minutes, then loosely cover mold with foil and continue to bake until golden and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes more. Cool in pan 2 minutes, then invert cake onto a rack to cool completely, about 1 hour. Dust with confectioners sugar.

Going dotty

Because of my job I don't often see the point in doing manicures any more because due to the amount of times I have to wash my hands during the day manicures never last more than a day without chipping and turning horrible looking. I have a few days off in the coming week though and because of that I decided to go ahead and do a polka dot manicure. Its the first time that I really used the dotting tool that my lovely friend Savannah gave me, but I think it looks cute anyway. Now let's see how long it lasts!

Finally finished...

Ta da! Finished off this beautiful sea green coloured alpaca cabled neck warmer/scarf. In actual fact, I had finished days ago but only got around to putting on these vintage buttons today (when I say vintage,I mean great grandmother's collection vintage). You can't really see the cables that well because this picture has been taken from the front view and also because I have such a large amount of thick, curly hair to cover it! I hope the recipient will like it as much as I do. I'm almost sad to give it away!

How to protect yourself against vampires...garlic cupcakes!

It's no secret that I'm a big lover of garlic. Pretty much all of my favourite foods have got garlic in them, when I go to restaurants the first thing on the menu that will catch my eye is the word garlic and when I cook at home I always usually use garlic too, even if the recipe doesn't call for it. 

I'm quite sure that I inherited this garlic love from my father. If you thought I was bad, he's even worse. He's been known to even enjoy a 'garlic sandwich'. 

Last week my dad came home for a visit (he works away for months at a time) and today while I was browsing through some of my favourite baking blogs I came across a recipe for garlic cupcakes from The Cupcake Project which I thought would be absolutely perfect to make for him! 

Sure, I know, it sounds like a weird combination but think of all the other great weird food combinations that have worked....: Bacon and maple syrup, chocolate and beer, chocolate and chilli...the list is endless! 

Oh, and sorry, but as usual I was being my forgetful self and only remembered way after I'd finished the baking part that I had forgotten to document the making of it. I'm really sorry about that and promise that next time I'll do a picture tutorial. 

Here's the ingredients you'll need for the chocolate garlic sponge: 

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup of butter (unsalted)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 4 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 2/3 cup brewed coffee
• 8 cloves of roasted garlic (you can see the tutorial here of how to roast garlic)

and here is the method on how to make them: 

1) Whisk flour, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl

2) Beat butter and sugar in a bowl for 1 minute until light and fluffy.

3)Beat in eggs and sour cream.

4)Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or the microwave.

5)Mix the chocolate into the wet ingredients.

6)Alternately fold in the flour mixture and coffee into the batter.

7)Mash garlic cloves and mix into batter.

8)Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.

9)Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the cupcake clean.

And here's what you'll need for the cream cheese frosting: 

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 C unsalted butter, room temperature

3 C powdered sugar, sifted

2 t garlic powder

1 t ground coffee 

Here's the method on how to make the frosting:

1)Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth.

2)Slowly mix in the powdered sugar.

3)Mix in the garlic powder and ground coffee until integrated.

Enjoy! But more importantly, remember to stock up on breathe mints! :P 

Thank you to The Cupcake Project for this great recipe!

I love...

My new Aztec printed skirt! Please ignore the grey socks, they will not be part of this outfit in the future! :P

Dear Charlotte Gainsbourg,

You are really just me, but in celebrity form.

""I wanted to re-do my nose as an adolescent but thank God my father said, 'Keep your personality, your personality is in your nose', so I didn't do it. Everything tends to show you that you shouldn't touch your face, but I don't know... it's difficult being an actress because the camera magnifies absolutely everything."

She tells me she is rigorous about skincare – she recently discovered Crème de la Mer and uses a touch of make-up daily to cover up spots, but overall, she's not very interested in beauty regimens. Her hair is a natural colour ("although I would dye it if it went grey, which is a bit like Botox in a way"), and she cuts her fringe herself. "I don't take the time to do massages or go to spas, for example, and my feet are terrible," she says.

And when she's off duty, Gainsbourg admits, she isn't too bothered about fashion, either. "I'm always wearing the same things: jeans and an old pair of boots. I like to find myself again after wearing the costumes of a film so it's going back to what I'm used to. I don't like making too much effort." For her musical performances and the red carpet, she is dressed by Ghesquière who, she says, helps her to be more adventurous with her choice of clothes.

Otherwise, she says, she is uninterested. "I'm not very classical," she admits, "it doesn't suit me. I'm not really part of the fashion world and I like keeping a distance."

(quote taken from an interview in The Independent)

I have been thinking of a Charlotteesque hairstyle and have been toying with the idea of going back to brunette coloured hair for ages now. What do you guys think?

It's hard to find things better in life than a really good cup of tea

Today I wanted to write a small blog post about one of my favourite brands of tea. If you know me at all, you'll know that one of things I value most highly in life is a good cup of tea.

All my life I've drunk tea the 'British way' (with milk) because hey, that's how we drink it in South Africa too. Ever since I've been spending more time in mainland Europe however I started to expand from just your average black tea into a whole world of flavours and spices and blends...all without milk! European tea and coffee houses are really the best! It did take a lot of convincing, however...I will always remember the running joke of the family of my ex-boyfriend about how I used to drink 'baby tea' because it had milk in it.

In Austria and Germany they have a brand of tea called Teekanne. Teekane specialise in herbal and fruit teas, and I think you can even get them in America now. I think they have the most delightful names...take a look at these:

"French Kiss" (a strawberry and cherry flavoured tea) 

"Heisse Liebe" ("Hot Love".A raspberry and vanilla flavoured tea...my personal favourite! I have boxes of it!)

"Kleine Suende" (This is hard to translate. I think it almost means something like "Little Sinner". It's a blueberry and vanilla flavoured tea)

Aren't those tea names all just adorable? And they taste great too! Check out the other flavours over here 

All pictures sourced from: www.austria-onlineshop.com, www.teekanne.at and www.emmas-enkel.de 

Cast on!

Today I cast on and began this cabled scarf which I hope to turn into a birthday gift for a very special person (I doubt she's reading this blog...and if she is...happy early birthday! haha!). The yarn I've used is a Paton's Silenzio Chunky..it's a blend of wool and alpaca and really soft and gorgeous to knit with. I've only knit up around half a ball of yarn so far and I've only got until next week Friday to finish it - eep!! Wish me luck everyone.

Oh, and don't forget to look out for my future projects which I'll feature on the blog. These will include trying out marbling for the first time (hoping to make a marbled silk scarf) and attempting to knit my first jumper/jersey/sweater (for whatever version of English you use!) which I hope will be a lot easier than trying to knit socks......

Starting spring early with a polka dot dress

Here's one of the dresses I got at H&M the other day. I got a matching rabbit printed one too...but they're really for spring with a quite thin fabric, so I almost froze to death trying to get this picture!

Winter weather calls for one thing only...soup!

Every year I suffer with the same problem. In summer, I go around complaining to anyone who will listen that I'm sick of the heat and that I can't wait for the snow and ice of winter, but a few months into winter I do the complete opposite and complain about how I'm sick of having frozen limbs and can't wait for the humidity and bare legs of summer.

To soften the pain the one thing I absolutely love doing during winter is making soups of all kind. I like to think of myself as a bit of a master of soups, if I'm honest. It's just that I haven't made a bad batch of soup to date! 

Yesterday I made this asparagus soup which I blended up with the new blender I got for my birthday. Here's the recipe to share with you all: 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

400g fresh asparagus, finely chopped

500ml vegetable stock

salt and pepper

4 tablespoons double cream

1) Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the onion for a few minutes until it's softened up.

2)Add the asparagus and fry it with the onions until that has softened up too.

3) Add the vegetable stock to the mix and boil it. Season the soup with the salt and pepper and let it simmer for around 5-7 minutes.

4) Add the cream and blend the soup until it's silky smooth. 

By the way, you can also add any other green vegetables to this is you feel like it. I added in some peas and it made a nice addition to the soup. Enjoy!

My Birthday

(During my 23rd birthday dinner-party celebration. Silly hats and balloons a requirement)

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday! I already celebrated 2 weeks before by holding a dinner party at my house for 4 of my friends where I made two different variations of tagliatelle pasta for everyone from a recipe which I adapted from the great Italian cooking bible I got for Christmas from my boyfriend. One version was with an Italian ham and cream sauce and the other was a vegetarian option for myself and one of my friends with an asparagus cream sauce - it was a hit! Apart from with my best friend, who I shamefully forgot she's not a fan of peas! For dessert I made a lemon syllabub (one of the easiest and tastiest recipes ever invented I think). I'll post the recipes shortly after making this post and you can find them in the 'Favourite recipes' section of the blog.

We spent the rest of the evening playing Just Dance on the Wii (hilarious, believe me) where I realised I am a master at Take on Me by my Norwegian heroes A-HA and playing our own very special version of Scattegories. It was a lovely evening! I'm glad we all made the effort to get together and celebrate!

(Yesterday during my 23rd birthday lunch with my mom)

Yesterday, during my actual birthday, I spent the day with my mom in Brighton. I'm lucky enough to live within a reasonable distance to Brighton which is definitely one of my favourite cities. It's got a strange laid back cosmopolitan vibe that is very difficult to find elsewhere. I'd love to live there someday! 

My mom and I had lunch at an Italian restaurant together. The portions are huge!! I had a pesto tagliatelle and my mom had a lasagne. 

(Tomato-Pesto Tagliatelle!)

We did a little shopping too. I bought two new adorable dresses - one with polka dots, the other with this cute bunny print on it. I'll make a different post dedicated to those new dresses in the following days from now. I also managed to pick up a super cool new purple tie dye purse on sale in Urban Outfitters. 

After a lot more shopping and stopping off at a sweet little cafe with the most delicious juices we stopped off to visit my brother and his girlfriend who live in Brighton. So all in all, I had a great day!! 

Now on to the important part.....the gifts!!!!!! 

I received this beautiful Skagen watch from my parents. I've been admiring their watches for a long, long time. It's typical Danish Design - clean lines and very modular looking. I absolutely love it! Among other things I also received a lot of new cooking equipment from my parents including a very powerful looking blender (which I plan to test out on a soup recipe later on), a brand new mixer to mix up my cake batters with, some colourful silicone cupcake cases, a year subscription to National Geographic Traveller and, subtle hint, a shoe rack to keep my mountain collection of shoes tidy - ha ha!

My brother and his girlfriend were also very generous. They gave me these polka dot knitting bags so I can finally keep all of my balls of wool tidy and stop having needles scattered all over the floor. They also gave me that little cassette bag filled with a lot of fun things, which you'll see below.

(Sea-green coloured beaded bracelets, nail polish and ice cream earrings!!)

I also received a lot of lovely items from my friends

I this cute heart pendant necklace and loads of balls of yarn in different colours from one friend. A bird printed notebook and an H&M voucher from another friend and a self-made photo album of memories, pyjamas and polka dot socks from another friend. 

So, thank you for all the messages, gifts and well wishes everyone. I had a lovely day and I'm so glad I got to share it with all of you.