Our nursery - a year later

Our little daughter just turned 11 months and I have taken a few new shots of her nursery. Now very lived-in. We have added a few new furniture items like the Panton Junior chairs which I find super cool. At the moment it's only me and daddy using them though. The change table meanwhile sits in the bathroom where we have direct access to water. Very useful to have it closeby! We also had to provide storage for all the toys she got from family and friends. For that purpose the pink IKEA hanging storage came in very handy. All in all I still love the friendly colourful design.

Inspiration Scrapbook

I think I have mentioned it before. I am a srapbooker. I love to stick magazine clippings in notebooks and turn them into beautiful books. Maybe one day I will start my own home project and then I already have loads of inspiration to choose from...

Hong Kong in spring

Spring is finally coming. On Sunday the weather was nice and warm and we went all the way up to 'The Peak'. On the way I took a few shots of a magnolia tree in full blossom. I think they look a bit dreamy...

Harem pants for baby

I just made these harem pants for my baby girl. I used the pattern for the simple yoga pants. But I altered the pattern a little bit. I made the legs shorter and a bit wider with cuffs made of squares that were a little bit smaller than the leg width. And then I styled them up by applicating birds and plants cut from IKEA fabric.
My daughter seems to be very pleased with them!

Cozy play pen

Our little one has started crawling lately so we bought a play pen in order to keep her in a safe place if needed. But the problem was - she hated it. So we had to cozy up the boring thing. We bought little bright balls and attached her old baby gym to the top. And it worked. Now she loves staying in it and playing with the balls and her toys. So the effort was worth it!

Chinese New Year deco

I just wanted to show you my Chinese New Year deco even though I am a little bit late with posting. It's the year of the rabbit and as a coincedence you can reuse the deco for easter. Here is the link to the folding instruction for the origami rabbits: Origami rabbit

I have been quite busy lately. We went to see family and friends in Germany over Christmas and when we came back I had to start working again. Now I am a part-time mum and employee. It was good to use my brain again. In the beginning it was a bit rusty but now it's back on track!

So I hope I will be able to post more often in the future, fingers crossed.

Leather deco garlands

This is my latest project. Making garlands from leftover leather and ribbon. I bought all the materials from my favourite shopping place Sham Shui Po. I used cookie cutters for the patterns. Just draw the patterns on the leather and cut them out. Then punch small holes into the pieces and use a nice ribbon to complete the garland.

Christmas cookies

The house is smelling deliciously from Christmas cookie baking. We have made cantuccinis again and almond and apricot macaroons and honey dough cookies.

Almond-Apricot-Macaroons:
Ingredients:

* 3 egg whites from medium eggs
* 50 grams granulated sugar
* 50 grams chopped dried apricot
* 50 grams of chopped almonds
Preparation:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 130 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Beat the egg whites until they are very stiff.
3. Slowly mix in the sugar.
4. Add the chopped almonds and apricots and mix carefully.
5. Scoop 1 heaping tablespoons of mixture on the parchment paper about 2 cm apart.
6. Bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes until the tops are slightly brown. Turn the oven off and let the macaroons sit in the oven for 10 minutes with the door slightly ajar. Remove from oven and let them sit on the baking sheet for cooling. Once cool peel them off.

Notes: The parchment paper is very important here. If you don't use parchment paper, it's going to make the macaroons stick to the pan and it's impossible to take them off.


For the honey dough you can use Martha Stewart's recipe. Instead of the molasse I have just used more honey. If you can't find all the spices just use what you can get. It will still taste fine if you use at least cinnamon and cloves.

Christmas Deco

Last week I started decorating the house. But since we are flying out to Germany for Christmas it's not a full blown christmas deco this year. But I still wanted to have a little Christmas atmosphere nontheless.

Knitted winter baby scarf

A knitted scarf for my baby daughter! We will be visiting Germany for Christmas and it will be really cold. So we needed some warm clothes. Mittens and bonnets were easy to find but no nice scarf. So I started knitting myself. I used a button to fix it around baby's neck. Look how the little wee one loves it!