What am I doing here???

Hi, Y'all!

You may be asking: What is she doing now she's in Malta? Fancy drinks are pretty nice, but you can't live on fancy drinks alone. And watching the sea never gets boring, but there has to be more... Especially, since I am used to going to work every day for more than 30 years (unbelievable, right)... 

Now what? OK, grab a drink, make yourself comfortable, I will explain. 

Hubs has always been busy looking for something to complement his deep tech nerdy part, something hands-on and practical. At first he was intrigued by bisons and seriously considered opening a bison farm by the north sea. But I vetoed this because with me those bisons would have been only petted to death. They are living beings, and I doubt that I would have been able to part from them. I would have named them and that would have been the end of selling bison steaks... 

OK, no bisons, no living creatures. And if you know the hubs, you also know, that he lives mostly on coffee (at least during the week). Thus it was likely to delve more into that subject. And now he is a certified barista. OK, the trademark "The grumpy barista" is still to be registered, but I am thrilled about the idea of opening a café or coffee shop (well, not the dutch kind, if you know what I mean). 

So we were busy making plans and are going to open a coffee shop and even roast our own coffee beans! Then you can drink the coffee right in our shop or take a bag (or two or three) of roasted beans home to have that barista feeling at home. And once we've roasted and bagged the beans, why not sell them online? Well, we combined his tech knowledge and my creativity and created an online presence. 

Then we had the online shop but neither a physical counterpart nor coffee roast to sell. It's work in progress, but it takes time. And in Malta, the clock is ticking differently (even literally*). We are interested in a particular location but the permits we need still have to be granted. 

In the meantime it would be a shame to abandon the online shop, hence I had the idea to sell some beautiful things which go with the same vibe. And anybody who knows me or this blog will know that I am fascinated not only by good food and drinks but also by things to present said good food and drinks. These things make me very happy, and thus it was only logical to offer in our shop the prettiest accessories to set a beautiful table. 

I did a thorough research to find suppliers to provide me with items which I like, that are special somehow and make a pretty table decoration even more pretty. And I found them, yay! Therefore you can find in our shop beautiful napkins and napkin rings, placemats and table runners, bowls, carafes and and coffee makers from all over the world for you and your home. We've overcome some difficulties and are now able to ship to Europe and Germany respectively - that was very important to us!

Surely our baby needed a name, and after a nice evening by the sea and an excellent Maltese red, it was named 

The A3

(the-a3.com)

In case you are wondering how we came up with this, here is the very simple answer to your question: 

                              

A lex and  

A lex 

A lten

A3

And this is how it looks if we need our logo handstitched on a table runner for the trademark registration! With the wine in the background, it's an insta-worthy picture, don't you think?

Soooo, if you are in shopping mood or looking for extraordinary and beautiful accessories for your dining table, what are you waiting for?! Chop chop, over to the-a3.com and most importantly spread the word! 😘

As always stay safe and sane, Y'all!!!

* Maltese churches always have two church clocks, and at least one of them shows the wrong time 

- in order to confound the devil 😉

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Hi, Y'all! 

It's been exactly one month today, since we've come here to Malta, and I can say that it feels completely right! But in the meantime I've noticed a few more things which are smaller than in Germany: paper towels, toilet paper rolls, our mop, the ironing board and even Christmas trees!

I guess, I already mentioned that our flat is completely furnished including even a Christmas tree. When our landlords told me about it I was pretty happy, because I gave back our former tree to the original owners (my sister and her hubs) and thought I'd have to buy a new one. But last week, our landlords (fun fact: Mary and Joseph) came by and surprised us by personally delivering our tree!

Compared to the wine shelf you can see that it is on the smaller side... But don't look a gift horse in the mouth... Thus I took all the ornaments that made it into our moving van and busily decorated for an hour or so. And this is the little one all dressed up:

Cute as a (very small) button, right? But as I was in the mood for decorating, I decided to make some more ornaments. And because I packed only two boxes of Christmas decorations, there was room for some more... Thus I took some very old and scattered school books and recycled them into beautiful ornaments. In theory I could have hung them into the tree, but due to its size, I opted against. 

I started with simple stars which I cut from a few pages of the book and adorned them with snowflakes: 

After cutting, I was left with some paper strips which I stapled to heart hangers. Would even be nice for Valentine's day. 

Then I made this cute little Christmas tree which I absolutely love:

But what's a winter decoration without stars and snowflakes? Therefore, I made a few of them in various shapes and sizes: 

As I said, they didn't fit into my tree, and so I hung them as garlands like this: 

And on that note I wish you a happy first advent, Y'all!

The simple things in life...

Hi, Y'all! 

Of course, you can order with Amazon in Malta, but you don't have to. Well, it is possible, but shipping costs are rather high and delivery takes significantly longer than what we are used to in Germany or in the US. Nevertheless you definitely can order online here, you just can't get it at a one stop shop like Amazon, instead you have to find your way through the Malta Virtual Mall unless you find what you're looking for. 

Lately I did exactly that when I needed pet food for Heinrich. Due to the lack of pearly whites he swallows dry food whole and therefore he needs wet food. In Germany we fed him pâté with game in 300 g portions, to which he responded very well. I looked for something similar here and was lucky. But our local supermarket didn't have it in stock, thus I ordered online. Delivery was confirmed for Wednesday until 4 pm, but at 5 pm still no dog food. I called them and was told that the game flavour was out of stock and they had no idea when it will be available again. 

But then I found a teeny tiny pet shop here in Mellieha called Paws'n'Claws - I liked that. Therefore I took my shopping trolley and went to the shop where I was greeted by an English Bulldog girl named Kira - yay! Thus the shop already found my sweet spot. And the dog let me pet her thoroughly and then went down on my foot to sleep and snore :-) I was very tempted to add her to my shopping cart (although she was not for sale!), but then I thought, Heinrich wouldn't be amused... 

The shop owner was very nice and showed my their different dog foods and also recommended some. And I have to say that Heinrich liked it very much and even responded very well to it. I won't go into detail but you know what I mean, Jellybean...

Today I went again to restock, and they remembered me instantly. The pet shop boy asked, if Heinrich liked the food and if everything was fine. I quite liked that. And after checkout he put all my cans in my trolley and even carried it upstairs to street level.

I was very impressed - that was thoughtful, considerate and polite - and that wouldn't have happened if I shopped with Amazon. It's all about these simple things in life, right?

Heinrich did a detailed inspection and was fine with it :-)

Enjoy the simple things, Y'all!

Everything's bigger in Texas, but what about Malta?

Hi, Y'all!

We've been on the island for 11 days already, and I must admit, that I really like it... Sometimes everything will feel normal to me, but at the moment I'm busy comparing things to Germany. But I guess, that's normal, too. 

Anyway, you might know the saying: Everything's bigger in Texas, and for Malta that works perfectly, but the other way round. It's known as a dwarf state, and you often realise that this is perfectly true. To begin with the Maltese streets which are very narrow; therefore people tend to drive small cars. With such a little banger it's a lot easier to drive around. And to be honest: Destinations are not soooo far away here, thus a huge car to cruise endless roads might seem pretty useless.

And when the streets are narrow, the sideways are too - appr. 50 cm. But at least there are sideways at all! But when there is garbage waiting to be picked up, you might have to walk in the street. And no, there are no large trash cans in the street as in Germany, only garbage bags, but at least garbage disposal comes daily - organic waste for example three times a week.

Butter packages are smaller, too. Often I see butter packed in 200 g. The local Welbee's supermarket surely can compete with German discounters sizewise, but most of the other shops are pretty small. The Starbuck's just around the corner consists mostly of a counter and is roughly 20 square meters. (But you can sit outside.) The butcher, the mini market and Tony's bakery are similar in size, but I find that very cute and charming. It's like shopping in someone's living room. And Tony's bread is superyummy. Maltese like their bread with a crust but soft and fluffy on the inside. I can live with that! And in case I need a Vollkornbrot, I can bake it myself - as simple as that.

Even drying racks are smaller here! Please compare mine to the one existing here in the apartment: 

In fact even people :-) Surely you find a lot of expats here, but the Maltese aren't that large - compared to them Alex (1,73 m) and me (1,65 m) are giants! 

But what's totally written in capital letters is religion. When I consider that in catholic Rhineland parishes have to be combined and one pastor cares for three communities, so that there is one mass per week per church. In the church just around our corner there is church service every f...ing day. Our landlords go to service every morning between 6:30 and 7:00 - exactly the time when I go sleepwalking with Heinrich... 

And besides that there are surely a few things which are far from being small and nondescript: Meal portions in restaurants 😋, the landscape and the beauty of nature! Please have yourself a look at how beautiful it is: 

On that note: Enjoy the little things in life!

Malta Life

 Hi Y'all,

we are settled! Which means, hubs and me arrived by air, and the little black dog had his own two chauffeurs, and all of us made it safe and sound to Mellieha, Malta. 

I don't know exactly if all our relocation goods will arrive as safe and sound, but let's stay optimistic. Exactly a week ago, Laszlo, the Hungarian mover came to Magdeburg, and together we played Tetris the whole morning :-) We actually managed to condense all our goods (including my diy stuff and Christmas decoration, especially) to one ton which fit perfectly into his Sprinter van. 

Well, we might have managed to fit in even some more things, but then the van would have been too heavy, and Laszlo wasn't too keen on bribing Italian officials, who like to put these vans onto a large scale. Thus we shipped a few boxes with DHL, but it wasn't that easy to limit them to 31,5 kg, especially, if you have to weigh them on a personal scale. Therefore, one of the boxes exceeded the limit by 4 kg, and DHL refused to transport it. I had hoped to solve that problem by paying an increased shipping fee, but they didn't offer that option. There were only two alternatives: Send back to original address (where nobody lives any longer to receive the package) or dispose/auction the content. Well, I suppose, someone will be very pleased over auctioned bedding and towels :-)

Anyway, Laszlo will arrive on Saturday, and hopefully, the DHL packages will be delivered some time, too. And then we will be very busy turning the apartment, which currently feels like an airbnb, into our home (at least for the next two years). First steps are already made: 

At least we have some bottles to put into the wine shelf, when it's going to be delivered on Saturday. And the Frizzante we tasted yesterday was highly recommendable! 

As there is left-side traffic in Malta, we decided not to buy a car. Moreover, the public transport is not so bad here, and moreover it's completely free of charge since 1 October '22. Thus, I wanted to test the buses - and what shall I say? I chose the wrong day for this experiment! I arrived at the bus stop only to read a note that due to construction the main road is closed today. I had to change to another bus stop within five minutes walking distance. 

While I was digesting this, a red minibus drove by and the driver shouted: No bus today, I drive - it's free, it's free! As he didn't mention the destination and I don't hop on any bus just because it's free, I walked to the makeshift bus stop. Bit of excercise is good for me, I thought. There were already a bunch of people waiting and after a short while the first green and white busses came. I knew I had to take lines 221 or 222, and therefore I let the first ones pass. Then 222 arrived and just to be sure I asked the driver if he would pass the supermarket. No, he didn't (was headed into the opposite direction) and I should wait for the next bus. That may happen, if you install only one bus stop which serves both directions. 

The next 222 approached, but didn't stop. That can happen in Malta; in case the bus is too full, they don't let anyone enter. Understandable but nevertheless annoying. Well then, the next bus came - not my line, but I asked anyway. And thank all transportation gods I made the acquaintance of a very nice driver. He told me, he would be headed roughly in that direction and that he would simply let me out near the supermarket. Which he did - I only had to take 500 m uphill on a highly frequented road, but I finally reached the supermarket. Took me only one hour :-)

I braced myself for the way back, but in front of the supermarket there were two guys from Transport Malta who assured me there is a shuttle service which would be there any minute. And who drove by just a few minutes later? Exactly, the guy in the red minibus! :-) Thus it took me only 10 minutes to get home. 

Note to self: Count in a bit more time than recommended by the public transport app, stay calm and you might get surprised.

I've learnt so far, that the Maltese understand rules as recommendations which one can follow or bend if needed. In Germany, the bus driver wouldn't have let me out near the supermarket if there was no official bus stop. But he drove by and he might as well let me out - very pragmatic. 

The same pragmatism they show with other things. For example I noticed that there are a lot of water bottles placed in the streets. And no, they are not supposed to be picked up by garbage disposal (although they come on a daily basis and for free). No, it has a very handy background: If a dog marks his territory, you can use the water to dilute his message in order to avoid all the dogs in da hood commenting on your dog's initial message. In the Maltese heat that could get very... intensive... But instead of getting furious and installing angry signs stating that doggo isn't allowed to post something to read for his fellow doggies, they just provide some water to get rid of any markings (and btw water is pretty cheap here). Simple as that! 

And that were the first impressions about living in Malta. Will keep you updated on our expat life here. 

Stay safe and sane!

eBay small ads - the struggle is real :-)

Hi, Y'all

As you probably noticed, we are in the midst of packing our bags to leave Germany for good, and we took the opportunity to declutter thoroughly. And we didn't stop there - due to the fact that in Malta (and in various other countries) properties are rented with furniture, we had to get rid of all our shelves, beds, cupboards - you name it. 

Therefore, we started early in Summer to list everything on eBay small ads (a service like craigslist or Facebook marketplace) in order to have it sold by the time we're leaving. And believe me, I could write books about it! Here are some real life stories... 

But first something else real life - only for entertaining purposes, and I hope it melts your heart!

But back to topic: First I listed glasses and china tableware, and as it is heavy and fragile by nature, I listed it as "pickup only". Guess what happened first: "Could you mail it to me?" Well, the tea light holders from IKEA might be worth less than the shipping costs, therefore "no, I can't". Now, hubbie's oldest child is happy for her new wedding decoration, and here is where the circle closes, because a decade ago I bought them just for the exact purpose. 

A girl from the Frankfurt area was as charming as she was adamant about my china, and thus I actually packed two large boxes with all the upholstery material I could find in my basement. And miracles happen - a shoutout to DHL who managed to ship a fine bone china tableware set for six safe and sound to Frankfurt! 

Some time in August I listed a small flatscreen tv for 25 Euro of which the remote control got lost or never existed, I can't remember. A guy contacted me very politely (salutation, kind regards, might it be possible, etc.) He lived on welfare and minimum wage, but as he had a very old tube tv with high energy consumption he would like to buy my tv. But it might take some time to save up to gather the 25 Euros - would it be possible to reserve the item for the time being? I was deeply touched by his honesty and decided to give it to him for free. He came with a package of coffee and we had a nice little chat. Very nice experience for both of us!

After we went through our alcohol stash we didn't need our wine shelf any longer. It could hold 54 bottles, was made out of solid wood, and came at a decent price of 20 Euros. Nevertheless I was contacted by someone first questioning the construction of the shelf and then offering to pay 10 Euros. Let's get real: If you can afford 54 bottles of wine, champagne or some other good stuff, you should be able to afford 20 bucks for a shelf, right? We decided to take the shelf with us, as we learned that the Maltese make some good wine, too!

I won't mention all the people contacting me with only one word, for example when I listed something for 50 Euros, they just sent "40", no hello, no currency, no thank you, no greetings or salutations. Or the classic: "last price?" Don't get me wrong, I know that many of the people answering small ads are no native speakers and I don't care if they spell something wrong or. But you realise if somebody has a natural politeness regardless how broken the German they use. And there are these special candidates who never had good manners regardless where they were raised. 

We were very lucky because we only had two or three potential buyers who had exaggerated ideas of the offered items (That's weird - the silver coloured chandelier isn't as golden as I thought...) or simply didn't appear to pick up the goods. I think this is very rude, and in that case I wasn't afraid to recognise them to the eBay system, so they might get banned or so. In my opinion you should invest the minimum amount of time and send an email stating that you're no longer interested, that's the smallest act of politeness.

A few times potential buyers backed out but informed us. I guess, such things happen. But twice it was when selling our kitchen - that was a bummer, I have to admit, because we were under pressure time wise. Our landlord didn't want to take it (I already talked about that), there is no renter after us and the landlord didn't want us to look for a new renter, thus we were solely in charge of selling the kitchen. And what you have to keep in mind: We listed it not at a bargain, but for a reasonable price, and it was an American sized kitchen! Which means tons of storage space, an extra cabinet for cleaning supplies and old school vacuum and such, a breakfast bar AND an island. Surely you would need adequate space to place all these kitchen cabinets; it's not comparable to a normal sized German kitchen. Therefore, it wasn't that easy, but in the end a very nice lady contacted me who wanted to buy it as a wedding gift for her daughter. All for of them (which means her, her pregnant daughter, soon to be son in law and her husband) came to look at the kitchen and were very appreciative about the design and quality of the kitchen and the electric appliances (I thought, mum would have liked the kitchen for herself) and were so excited, that they even bought our laundry dryer! I liked the idea of the wedding gift, and the fact that they didn't even try to lower the price :-)

Afterwards we realised, that we know the daughter, we only didn't recognise her due to her face mask. We met her once with her puppy "Erna" and talked to her for a bit. In the meantime, puppy Erna had her first birthday, but that was a nice coincidence. Tuesday, 10 days ago, father of the bride came with some buddy, and the two of them demounted all of the cabinets. The next day, they came accompanied by three other guys and a truck and removed the whole kitchen. Very nice people, and it was nice talking with them while they were busy working on the kitchen. What I liked most: They were very organised, but at the same time pretty calm, and without any hectic they took apart everything and labeled it carefully. Very nice! For about a week our kitchen without kitchen looked like this: 

But as I got to know these people and found them sympathetic, I am at peace with giving away my dream kitchen. I know it will be in good hands and good use for the next 20 years. 

Are there any lessons learned? Yes! Never offer items with a high demand (washing machine for example) when you still need them! Even if you mention: no pickup before this and that date, people tend to ignore that. When I listed said washer, I had a double-digit list of possible buyers in no time! Next time, I know better.

And I learned another lesson: Never list anything on "Quoka", their security system is practically non-existent. We listed a bike there, three people wanted to buy it, and all of them were scam. First time was a classic: Someone agrees to buy the bike, asked for our PayPal account and sends a faked payment confirmation from Paypal with a significant higher amount than agreed. The difference is supposed for the transport of the bike and we should send the money directly to the shipment company. We informed PayPal and Quoka about the scammer and could avoid any harm. But when the next two candidates send an almost identical text to buy the bike, I deleted the ad, and the significant other of our youngest now has a new bike :-) So please be careful, even (or especially when) someone wants to shower you with money! 

Stay safe and sane if dealing with Craigslist and others!!!

There's something going on...

Hi, Y'all!

It's been a looooong time... For those of you with a good memory: I am the one who wanted to post quite regularly :-D

And then life got in the way - once again. Hubby and I are working on a huge project with lots of prep work, thus I had tons to do. On the other hand, I didn't want to spill the beans until everything was safe. And at this stage it felt weird to blog about recipes and sewing projects when I was occupied with something completely different. 

Well, I won't be beating around the bush any longer, and some of you we told already in person: we are moving. Yes, once again - you know the drill. But this time is different, because we will move to beautiful Malta! The smallest of the small European dwarf states with its two official languages English and Maltese caught our interest, and at the end of October we are diving headfirst into our next adventure!!!

Few educational facts: Malta has a square footage of appr. 316 km² and is thus smaller than the German city of Bremen. With its 520.000 inhabitants its ranked in between the German cities Nuremberg and Hanover. Manageable, but nevertheless there is hustle and bustle: firstly because of the limited space on an island and secondly because with its 300 days of sun per year it attracts a lot of tourists. But apart from the main island, there are another two islands belonging to Malta: the relatively quiet Gozo and the tiny Comino - with only two constant inhabitants. 

Fun fact: Malta was backdrop for numerous hollywood blockbusters - among others Troy (starring Brad Pitt) and Gladiator (starring Russell Crowe) were filmed on Malta, and lastly Game of Thrones, of course. Besides, Popeye was filmed here sometime during the seventies or eighties, and the scenery never was destroyed - moreover, the Maltese use it as an amusement park nowadays. An enterprising bunch are these Maltese people :-) 

Well, and what will we do, once we're relocated? The following picture might speak for itself, and no, this is no Apple advert! 

In case you are wondering: For sure Heinrich is coming with us, and because of him we are planning a little roadtrip of 2400 km... Because we feared that he wouldn't be allowed to boarding a plane. Due to the risks that brachycephalic dogs as Heinrich bear, some airlines as Lufthansa for example put these breeds on their no-flight-list in 2020. So now he will get dewormed at the end of the month (he is already vaccinated and microchipped), and then he and his European Pet Passport will accompany us in the car to Malta - our furry little globetrotter. 

And until then we are organizing our butts off, because in Malta rentals are usually completely furnished, and therefore we have to get rid of all our furniture. Especially selling our dream kitchen is a pain in the neck: two potential buyers already backed out, our landlord won't buy it, and there are no new renters in sight - at least there were neither any realtors nor any potential tenants in our apartment. And there was no feedback to our suggestion to find new tenants ourselves. Honi soit qui mal y pense...

But to avoid any hard feelings please take a look at these gorgeous pictures - and from now on I will keep you posted on a regular basis, I promise! 

Stay safe!!!

 

Some things just take time...

Hi Y'all!

I'm a big fan of DIY projects which are quick, easy and with a purpose. But sometimes things just happen differently...

Last winter I had a craving for color (tbh I like color all the time), and therefore a project by #crystalsandcrochet caught my attention - a crocheted mandala, gigantic and a fireworks of color and patterns. I had no idea what to do with such a monster, but I liked it a lot. What shall we do - not with the drunken sailor but with a circular blanket? Might be pretty for a picknick but on the other hand it seemed impractical due to its 3dimensional patterns and stitches. Furthermore, I'd have to coat it with some waterproof fabric.

Wait and see, I ordered to collections of cotton yarn in all colors of the rainbow and soon started crocheting. I was inspired by the pattern for the mandala madness and followed it more or less strictly.

In the beginning you could see it quickly progressing, but after a while the rounds took more and more time. In the first picture the mandala has the size of a dinner plate and in the second roughly the size of a vinyl record - some of you might remember... :-)

I made this project just for me, because of its sheer beauty. Without knowing its purpose but surely sensing it would take me more than just a weekend or two of crocheting. Or three or four... But that's totally fine! 

But at some point I had used up all my yarn (20 skeins with 50 g each), and the mandala had a diameter of appr. two standard sized French Bulldogs :-)

And the experts with an eye for the detail might detect that I already started with a dark grey yarn. That is because I finally decided to square up that blanket, although I made more than enough quilts to keep me warm. But our balcony - which is mostly colored in white, black and copper - could use some pop of color. (And therefore I finish the blanket with grey, haha!) But in fact it ties perfectly with the grey pillows on the windowsill of our balcony (althoug it doesn't look that way on the pictures further below...) 

To avoid any boredom, here are some pictures of the details:

But how do I square up a circle? In principle, it's easy: You divide your circle in even eights like a pie and start in the first piece of pie with small stitches like a slip stitch. Slowly you ascend with larger stitches, e.g. single crochet, then half double crochet, double crochet and treble until the end of the pie piece. In the next pie piece you mirror that - which means you start with the large stitches and descend all the way down to the slip stitch at the end of your second pie piece. Repeat that process three times et voilà you have the foundation for your four corners. 

With small circles (let's say like the palm of your hand) that's pretty simple, but with that ginourmous beast I had created, it was not so easy. Somehow it stayed rounded instead of a proper square. After two failed attempts I chose another approach and started right in the corner.  

I began with a scallop pattern in the middle of two pie pieces and crocheted in rows until the end of the two pieces, and thus I formed one corner. I repeated that for another three times and after that I continued in rows of half double crochets until the ten skeins of grey cotton were almost gone. Sounds incomprehensible? Well, maybe it is :-) 

Not a big fan of the scalloped center, because I wanted that grey to be completely plain. But that was the only method to produce straight edges in that square, and then I wanted to get it done finally.

I finished it off with tassles in all four corners which I like very much. And while making them, I added some for the two pillows as well. Looks really pretty and cohesive now. 

 

And that's the ensemble in action - approved by Heinrich himself :-) 

If that isn't a pretty pop of color, I don't know! 

Just enjoy!

Hi, Y'all!

The last two weeks were insane, because Heinrich was ill. Our pets are family for us, and therefore I worried a lot. What happened? He got nipped by another dog - not funny, but sh... happens. Not overly dramatic at first, so business as usual. But then the whole thing got infected and he had an abcess, thus we went for the whole nine yards - vet visits, emergency clinic, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs and a little dog who hates going to the vet but bore everything very bravely. In the end the buzz cut will grow out, the swelling not longer looks like there's an alien going to hatch and begging for treats already works. Healing in process!  

And after that load is taken off my heart, I can happily post again what I did the last weeks apart from that. Let's start with the kitchen... 

For Easter I wanted to treat our mums and mixed them a nice bottle - this time with coconut cream, pineapple juice, white rum and molten (or melted?) white chocolate. Unfortunately one bottle did not reach its destination because - allegedly - packaging was not sufficient and the bottle broke. Interestingly enough the second bottle packaged in the same way, reached my mother-in-law in perfect condition. And besides, the first bottle was unharmed on its way from here to Eschweiler, but then already almost on the homerun, someone didn't pay enough attention. And as you might imagine, there is no arguing with DHL even though I had an insurance :( 

During the Easter holidays we were in Stuttgart visiting the girls. As a gift I had prepared a vegan "Eierlikoer" - supersimple and superdelish! 

Basically, you mix vegan vanilla pudding (with oat milk, can be storebought by different manufacturers) with vanilla extract or vanilla sugar and vodka. For the color you might want to ad a pinch of kurkuma, but for the taste it isn't required. To add some kind of egg flavor you could add a pinch of kala namak salt, but that's totally optional. Worked pretty well without. 

Perfect match: braided bread vegan style. Eggs and butter basically are substituted by apple sauce, and besides it's a normal yeast dough - in this case with spelt flour: 

My mother-in-law- sent us an Easter package filled with goodies, and above others it contained a falafel-mixture directly from Israel, which I had to test right away. Thus, we lately had falafel burger with home made sunflower seed bread, grilled red pepper and ajvar with oven carrots as side dish. Very crossover and very tasty! 

To balance out the vegetarian dishes we had pesto chicken the other night. Easy, as always: Just put some pesto and grated cheese onto the chicken breast and bake that in the oven. Place it on a bed of tomato spaghetti and throw some cherry tomatoes and basil or spring onion on top. Totally recommend as it is so aesthetically pleasing :-)

For lunch I usually prepare something quick like toast or wraps. Normally I fill them with hummus and bell pepper and roll them up. But then Instagram made me do this instead - please take a look of all four stages of wrapping:

Fried that in a pan until the cheese was molten or melted or in a state that pleased our palates - fancy, right? 

We both like the French pizza version called "Tarte Flambee", and up til now I always bought the ready made dough. But a few days ago I found a recipe so simple I had to try it: 300 g flour, 150 ml water, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt - mix, roll and fill. No yeast, no baking powder, no waiting for the dough to rise. That amount of indredients is suitable for two smaller crusts, but I made one large sheet pan out of it. Topping was light creamcheese, red onions, bacon bits, mushrooms, grated cheese and chopped walnuts. Add a spinach leaf salad and a glass of white and start the weekend! 

But it takes two to tango, therefore I'll show you not only my kitchen accomplishments but also what I made in my sewing room. There are two colleagues/neighbors who are expecting their second children and thus I dug out my sewing machine and made two sibling teddies (or teddy siblings), rice-filled heat pads and little hats. 

And for my colleague who is waiting for his first born I made some leather booties and a rabbit toy - very cute! 

And last but not least I want to show you my latest experiment: A while ago I stripped one of our bedding sets from a perfectly cute but very impractical ruching and piping. Then I was left with a long cord and an even longer fabric strip which I used to make a rope bowl. The basic principle is as follows: You wrap your fabric around the rope, and then you roll up the rope and connect everything with a wide zigzag stitch. When the bottom is large enough you start building the wall of the bowl. Was a bit tricky and the rounding of the bowl has room for improvement, but for the first attempt I quite like it. 

 

With that said - have a nice weekend and enjoy Spring time!