I bought the sailor love earrings from Fun Style; they were together with me at the second edition of Munikum. They have a lot of different round earring models, but since I have a soft spot for navy chic I chose the anchor theme:

Also at the same Munikum edition I bought these awesome rainy cloud earrings from Katheyl. I’ve been wanting rainy clouds for like forever, but somehow I only seemed to find them in gold. I was so glad when I discovered these silvery babies at Munikum. Now I plan to get the matching necklace, too!

Since I also visited the first edition of Munikum to get a feel for the crowd, I sure didn’t left empty-handed. These folksy felt brooches are created by Broschenmanufaktur (they blog on Ansteckend Anders) and I couldn’t resist the Alps-like aesthetic. They had a lot of awesome brooches and it was a hard job to decide, but I love my choices:

These three buys were all made at the two Munkum fairs. I have to get my photos sorted these days and show you how the fair was like. But for now, I still have one pair of earrings left to show you. They were created by Anca from Bo3mia and they are the fourth or so piece of jewelry I have from her. I just love her whimsical and girly creations, and these elegant drop earrings are no exception:

If you like handmade and want to see more handmade purchases, click here!

I was lucky enough to get paired up with Anca from Handmade Therapy – although I don’t know her personally, I know and admire her work (check it out here). And because we’re frequently talking via blogs and social media, I knew she would like one of my coffe cup cozies so this was immediately on top of my mind. You can see the whole package I sent her here.

Edit: since this was posted in Anca’s albums on Facebook and I don’t know if it’s public, you can take a look at some snapshots here, here and here.

What I received was equally nice & cozy: Anca wrapped everything in kraft paper and posted on each little package an adorable pctire saying someting about what’s inside. When I opened everything up I had to stop for several minutes to take in all the details:

So I got some tea for those long cold winter evenings:

Some marzipan, which was delicious and therefore didn’t last long:

Some ribbon & fabric covered buttons to use in my projects. This was really cool, I love getting new supplies and I’m really into fabric covered buttons:

And a very cozy crocheted headband which I can also use as a brooch. I love how the texture of the knit pairs so nicely with the rich tones of plume and red! It’s really the perfect winter accesoire. Thanks so much Anca!

Because of this, and because we wanted something quick, I did two pre-made mixes from Dr. Oetker. Of course, you could  make your own batter instead, but for a first time I think they turned out great. Here’s a list of everything you need for 12 muffins and 12 cupcakes. Additionally, you need an oven tray and an egg whip (or wire whisk) or a mixer.

And this is how you do the muffins:

Before you start, preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Also, most muffin recipes say to mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and the wet ones in a separate bowl. We just put them together and it worked fine, but maybe that’s because the mix instructions went like that. If you do your own batter, then it’s safer to mix wet and dry separately.

One more tip: don’t fill the muffin paper liners completely with batter. Just fill them 2/3 to maximum 3/4 to leave room for the muffins to expand and avoid batter spilling in your oven. If you followed the instructions carefully, the result will be:

The cupcakes are made very similar. We again mixed the pre-made baking cupcake mix with all the ingredients (except for the whipped cream, you’ll need this later for the topping):

Bake the cupcake mix also for 20 min. at 180 degree Celsius: My recipe asked to bake them in the lower third of the oven, so I inserted the tray lower when I put them in the oven. When they were ready, they looked like flatter chocolate muffins:

Leave the cupcakes to cool. Then whip the whipped cream until it gets a firmer consistency ( since we don’t have a mixer, we took turns into whipping very hard and very fast, but it worked!). Then I added the topping mix from the box (I guess it was mainly sugar and raspberry flavour) and kept whipping until the consistency was firm.

Then, all you have to do is fill the topping into a frosting bag (the box contained one in this case) and frost the cupcakes with the delicious raspberry topping. Sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top and you’re done! Keep in refrigerator until you serve them:

So let me present you with some cute and warm outfits that you can use as an inspiration for the next 2 months or so, as long as winter will last:

All photos are owned by Promod. Clicking on the photos might prove useful, since this will take you to the listing of the pictured items, and a lot of them are on sale now!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had an amazing New Year’s Eve and a fresh start in 2012! I started the New Year doing something new: riding the train on the 1st of January since I had to get back to Munich from Austria. So, since today is the first day of the new year, it’s time for some new year’s resolutions!

Last year, I had three main goals: to find a new home here in Munich, to continue jogging for three times a week and to lear how to ride a horse. Since this has been a busy busy year for me (finishing my master thesis, moving to another town 600 km away and settling to a new job) I have managed to complete only one-and-a-half of my three resolutions for 2011. And here are  the ones for 2012:

• Start looking for a new apartment in Munich (I’m not kidding myself, finding a decent home here is a nightmare, so the plan doesn’t include the complete move this year)
• Learn Spanish
• Continue to jog three times a week when the weather gets warmer
• Finally, learn to ride a horse!

These are the goals on my list; what are your resolutions for 2012? Do you also have a permanent goal that is on your list every year and yet somehow it never gets completed?

Sorry for my super-duper long absence here on the blog. One of my New Year Resolutions for 2012 will be to post here more often! After the Munikum fair (which I will tell you about in one of the upcoming posts), I had my hands full with decorating, gift shopping, packing for the Christmas Holidays which I’m spending at home in Bucharest and of course, Yule time is the busiest at work too, so sadly I haven’t had much free time to write here.

But I couldn’t get the Holidays pass without telling you about the two swaps I’ve been part of this December. For all of you who don’t know what this is about: a swap means you will prepare a gift for someone you haven’t met personally and then mail it away. In turn, you will also receive another package from a stranger, also called your secret santa. Sometimes every participant has to write a few lines about themselves and what they like, so you have at least something to go by; other times you dont’t know much about your gift recipient. But this is fun too, not to mention the excitement when you get a package from a total stranger and the goodies inside are awesome!

The first swap I took part in was organized by Caroline & Nadine. I was so happy when my package from Switzerland arrived on my doorstep. Of course, your secret santa is…secret, so you don’t really know who is going to send your gift until it arrives. My secret santa from Switzerland sent me a beautifully packaged gift, even the box was festive:

Inside, there was a sweet winter-themed greeting card, a cute package of festive paper tissues (I have a whole collection of them because I can’t bring myself to actually use the pretty tissues) and a mysterious package. I love how both the kid and the snowman on the greeting and the dwarf on the tissues all wear red hoods:

But my biggest surprise was when I opened the little mysterious package. I got a lot of Christmas white clay ornaments, with embedded letters and red-white ribbons! I don’t know if you remember from last year, but my Christmas trees is always decorated in white and red, so these were so fitting! Thank you Swiss Santa

PS: The package I sent was for Anna Sterntaler and you can see it here. Hope you liked it Anna!

In my next post I’ll show you the other swap package I received! Until then, I wish you all a super-glam New Year’s Eve and have an amazing time the year to come! See you in 2012!