Birthday Tea Party

As this year was my 30th birthday (see my look here), I wanted to make something extra special for my party. I invited my favourite girlfriends and we spent the afternoon making bathing pralinés. Later we had a wonderful tea party at my home and I decorated the place in turquoise (my favourite color for my livingroom), white, copper and also added some sparkles!

The candle holder is a DIY project and the dishes are vintage from my great-grandmother.

I instantly loved these owl muffins when I saw them first on another blog. The recipe is by Sanella and they really were the eyecatchers of my party. All the girls took pictures!

I bought all these ornaments at IKEA, the small round ones are from the Christmas collection and the bigger ones are in their permanent collection. Love them and they are still hanging right now, a week after the party! Definitely will reuse them for other parties. Great investment!

I also made some apple roses as they really look pretty on the dessert table - they need a little more preparation, but I used ready made dough, which saved me some time. The recipe is from my new baking book Fräulein Klein lädt ein.

Wintery decorations. The pegs are a DIY project and the candle holders are from NanuNana. Currently, you can buy similar ones at H&M Home.

All the flowers that I have got!

And something for the little kid in me. I put this cute caterpillar topper (Müller Drogerie) on my cake (Cheesecake recipe by Enie backt, topping cream on the cake from the book Fräulein Klein lädt ein) 

A Merry Christmas and my Christmas decorations 2014

With this post, I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. I hope you enjoy your holidays with your loved ones and have a wonderful time together. We spend these days with Mr.B and my families again, trying to find some time for all our relatives, eating lots of good food and just having a good time. I want to leave you with a couple of photos from our decorations this year. They are pretty similar to the ones last year. In our region, we have a lot of traditional wood work and crafts made by hand. They are quite expensive, but also timeless and I have collected quite some pieces and got a nice selection of old pieces from both my grandmother and great-grandmother's collections. They are handed down in our family and it is very nice to display them every year also to remember these loved people.

Our small advent "wreath" - we needed a space-saving option as our coffee table is just so tiny and I found this nice glass bottle variation last year at Depot.

The one new DIY piece. The door wreath. I loved the idea of a wreath, but never found one that I really liked. Therefore, I decided to give the handmade version a go and this is the variation for this year. Red and white colors!

Breakfast table decorations. My color combination this year was mostly white and silver with a little bit of grey and red here and there. These things on the table also work well during the rest of the winter time and I am thinking of restyling them as winter decorations after the holidays. A little spray paint here and there and they will look great on our table.

This light arch (Schwibbogen) is also a new addition. It shows the small mountain city of Oberwiesenthal and has a special meaning to Mr.B!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Current details of our home - Spring edition

I decided to bring a little Spring into our home and started adding flowers and colors to all our rooms. As we are still renovating our kitchen (post is soon to come), I decided to also change a view things in our bedroom and living room. I added the little blue vases from IKEA to my dressing table and currently switch up the flowers according to my mood.

And to continue the blue colors, I got a blue/lilac hydrangea this year. Apart from the little vases, these two candle holders (also IKEA) moved in as well. I reworked them into brush holders and got rid of my old glasses where my brushes just disappeared and I had to pull them out by grabbing the hairs. No more destroyed make-up brushes from now on! As I wanted to keep the glass from getting scratches, I asked Mr.B to add some felt coasters that he cut to the size of the holders. 
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Um die blauen Farben weiter zu führen, habe ich dieses Jahr eine blaue Hortensie gekauft. Abgesehen von den kleinen Vasen sind auch noch diese zwei Kerzenhalter eingezogen. Ich habe sie als Pinselhalter umfunktioniert, da meine alten Gläser zu tief waren und ich meine Make up Pinsel immer am Haar herausholen musste. Jetzt gibt es endlich keine kaputten Pinsel mehr! Um meinen Schminktisch nicht zu zerkratzen, haben wir die Unterseite mit Filz beklebt und sie so kratzfest gemacht.

I am so excited about this orchid. When we adopted it, there were no blossoms and it looked a little pathetic. Now it is a beautiful and big plant with such wonderful blossoms!!
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This little buttercup moved in a couple of weeks ago, but sadly it just recently died on me. I guess it is just not the best lighting etc here. It is a cute flower though, love te look!
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Diese kleine Ranunkel ist vor ein paar Wochen bei uns eingezogen. So eine schöne Blume, leider scheint es ihr bei uns zu heiß und sonnig zu sein. Ich musste sie leider weggeben.

Breakfast with Mr.B and our wonderful Finnish glass and ceramic ware. The mugs are Moomin Arabia and the egg holders are dupes of the iittala Marimekko glass bowls. The juice glasses are vintage iittala and aren't made anymore. We (aka I) were on the hunt for them for ages! I am just so in love with the nordic designs!
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Frühstück mit Mr.B im Finnland stil. Wir haben unsere Moomintassen, sowie die Eierbecher und Saftgläser rausgeholt und es uns gemütlich gemacht. Die Gläser sind übrigens nicht mehr erhältlich und es hat ewig gedauert, ein paar zu finden.

Homemade hot chocolate with a cinnamon stick to stir!

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Selbstgemachte heiße Schokolade mit einer Zimtstange zum Umrühren! Sehr lecker und ohne Milch!

Homemade rhubarb and vanilla sauce is such a big part of my Spring, I am currently making another batch!
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Handgemachter Rhabarber mit Vanille Sauce. Derzeit ständig in unserer Küche am köcheln. 

Do you have any favourite things that you change up every season?

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Habt ihr auch Dinge, die ihr gern jede Saison abändert?

There is always a reason for a good party

Last weekend, I celebrated my birthday once again, this time with my close family. I had invited them for a tea party and made this awesome cake for the first time. My look is a very similar version of this outfit, which I wore last summer for my friends wedding in Finland. I love this dress and I need to find more occasions to wear it!
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Am letzten Wochenende habe ich noch einmal meinen Geburtstag gefeiert, diesmal mit meiner Familie. Ich habe sie zu einer Teeparty eingeladen und habe zum ersten Mal diesen tollen Kuchen gebacken. Mein Outfit an diesem Tag ist eine Variation des Outfits, welches ich zur Hochzeit meiner Freunde im letzten Sommer getragen haben. Ich muss unbedingt noch mehr Anlässe finden, um es zu tragen.  

What I wore

Dress (Kleid): Long Tall Sally

Cardigan & Belt (Strickjacke & Gürtel): H&M

Necklace & Earrings (Kette & Ohrringe): C&A

Tights (Strumpfhosen): Esda

Watch (Uhr): Skagen

Ring: gift

This is a total calorie bomb, but it is so worth it! Mr.B was a great support and together we handled it well. Next time we might change up the ingrediences a bit, but if you want to make a similar version, check out my favourite food blook Frl. Klein or buy her book.
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Das ist die Kalorienbombe schlechthin, aber sie ist es wert! Mr.B hat mir sehr dabei geholfen und zusammen haben wir es hinbekommen. Beim nächsten Mal werden wir vielleicht die Zutaten etwas verändern, aber wenn ihr gern diesen Kuchen nachbacken wollt, schaut bei Frl. Klein vorbei oder kauft euch ihr Buch!

handmade cookies and some sweet waffles

I also changed the decorations a little, with new pillows and a new picture. A separate post is coming up soon.

A fun decorating idea - gift from my grandparents

Linkin up to Three-fer Thursday and Spotlight

What I love right now - The holiday edition

I know, I know, those pictures come a little late, but I just had to share them. And since my birthday is so close after Christmas, we normally save some of the traditional fruit cake and cookies just for the celebrations of me turning a year older. Now, I enjoyed the Christmas days. Especially the food. That's probably a really bad thing when our beach vacation is coming up in 4 weeks, but I just can't help it!
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Ich weiß, dass es für diese Bilder recht spät ist, aber ich musste sie einfach noch teilen. Und da mein Geburtstag so kurz nach Weihnachten gefeiert wird, gibt es normalerweise noch einmal traditionellen Stollen, Früchtekuchen, Baumkuchen und Kekse. Ich habe die Feiertage wirklich genossen. Vor allem das gute Essen. Das ist vielleicht nicht besonders gut für unseren anstehenden Strandurlaub in nicht mal mehr 4 Wochen, aber ich konnte mich einfach nicht beherrschen!

Cookies, coconut macaroon, pyramid cake and fruit cake!

Giving presents!



Table settings and dessert!



Stollen and Creme Brulee



Decorations

Christmas decorations 2013

Christmas is no different this year. I have decorated the place with all our collectibles. Sorry for the picture overload. I normally keep the decoration simple during the year, but during Christmas, I go a little overboard.

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Weihnachten ist wie jedes Jahr. Ich habe meine Wohnung mit unseren Sammlerstücken geschmückt. Die Bilderflut tut mit leid. Normalerweise dekoriere ich nur wenig, aber Weihnachten läuft das jedes Jahr ein bisschen aus dem Ruder.

Ornaments are mostly in white and silver. They are a collection of old and new pieces, some being heirlooms by my grandmothers. Our dining table is the big exception. All red and white ornaments with dots there. The pink reindeer was a gift by my best friend J. It has a special spot on the tree.

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Baumschmuck ist fast nur in weiß und silber bei uns zu Hause. Sie sind eine Sammlung aus alten und neuen Stücken, einige sind sogar Erbstücke von meinen Großmüttern. Der Esstisch ist die große Ausnahme. Hier ist alles in rot und weiß mit Punkten gehalten. Das pinke Rentier war ein Geschenk von meiner besten Freundin J. Es bekommt immer einen Ehrenplatz.

Mr.B and I have collecte quite some pieces like this dwarf from Mr.B's childhood. 

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Mr.B und ich haben beide viele schöne Schmuckstücke gesammelt, wie dieser Zwerg aus Mr.B's Kindergartenzeit!

Artificial snow as we are not going to get white Christmas this year. 

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Kunstschnee, weil wir dieses Jahr wohl keine weiße Weihnachten bekommen werden.

This Advent calendar was filled by Mr.B - every day something sweet for work!

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Den Kalender hat mir Mr.B gefüllt - jeden Tag etwas süßes für die Arbeit!

How have you decorated your house this year?

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Wie habt ihr dieses Jahr euer zu Hause weihnachtlich geschmückt?