i´ve been away for so long

and these pretty pictures of our ARCADE PUZZLE RING aren´t even mine

but taken by the lovely Iris from @thingslinkediamonds

thank you so much for letting me use them!

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when i´ve won the battle against this virus i´m fighting for 10 weeks now

i´ll be back for good though

(and i´m planing a little surprise for you)

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GAL

BAKERIES IN PARIS

THOUGHTS ON MARRIAGE

SPANISH SUMMER SWEATERS (in love with that coral and light blue...)

but it´s still wintery - so: HELLEBORES

BROKKOLIBAUM

it´s BOOKCLUB time again!

in case you want to join us - just let me know

we´re meeting again on 28.1., 19.30

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THE HEART OF THE VALLEY/ IM HERZEN DES TALES by Nigel Hinton

it´s the story of a year in the life of a tiny bird - a dunnock or hedge-sparrow

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one blurb´s saying it is a novel about

"... survival. The rapture of mating, the patient labour

of nest-building, the laying of tiny, sky-blue eggs - these milestones,

together with the fears and catastrophes of the dunnock´s year are beautifully

and movingly evoked."

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i did it find a bit corny and in parts a bit like reading 

one of those trashy novels with doctors, royals and lots of fainting - but maybe it´s a bit the translation´s fault

also i felt cheated on the apparently very interesting sexual life

the ornithologist boyfriend of my sister promised me

(i will have to ask him about a few more things about those birds before we meet...)

so all in all i´m looking very foward to the discussion

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made a seed cake looking a bit like a bird-feeding ring 

(seed crust?! i was afraid it might just get burnt, but it turned out exquisitley crunchy and now i know what the seed-cake-fuss in English novels is all about)

and a few bird fat balls for humans based on those SESAME BALLS

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the font used is from the wonderful free font poject by THE PYTE FOUNDRY

(thank you so much for the link, dear ULMA)

fonts for headings are not to be used in running text, but i couldn´t care less

so here you have it!

only for a few more days:

get some of our pieces for a very special deal over at MONOQI

so get your hand on some ducks and waves and other rings and ear studs

hurry - a few things are already sold out!

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all pictures by MONOQI

hope you all had some very lovely holidays

and a good start into 2016

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on new years eve we stayed at home (again) - none of the planned going dancing happening

due to icy streets (again)

E had a new year´s cry (again)

and forced us to come up with some deep stuff resolutions (again)

to put mine into a shallow shell: i´d like to match my life more to the clothes sleeping in my wardrobe

whatever that might mean

this BRACELET would have been the perfect attire to go with the fire works

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i´m starting to feel relaxed just now

and would like to have a few weeks of doing nothing ahead

since i was so stressed out in the last weeks  before christmas

i had to leave a physiotherapy session early 

because i started to have a panic attack

which would be something i have to work on in this new year

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other than that we have been rather lazy the last days

and eating A LOT, meaning almost non stop
including a fruit cake from hell that just refused to set, even after four bakes in the oven
maybe the week long soak in rum and cointreau made the fruits too drunk after all

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E was told recently she would need a good reason to be naked on stage

so here´s the one for dancing around my kitchen with no shirt on:

she wanted to spare her dress because her head was covered in prophylactic chemicals

since she got a text message basically saying

"Merry Christmas, i might have given you head lice!"
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drawings sneaked from SAMUEL´S diary
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grey cushion cover by THINGSLIKEDIAMONDS
swapping stuff is so great...

that´s right - i´m putting heavily pregnant women to work!

rolling lots of dough balls and turning them into various kinds of "eyes"

(there´s even a pinkeye)

to serve at our Christmas market

i even forgot to offer her a chair and then she couldn´t take any cookies with her

since the jelly wasn´t set

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the "bull´s eyes" with poppy seeds where based on a recipe my mum made at least a decade ago

from an ancient copy of ESSEN & TRINKEN

the saffron eyes were inspired by MILAS DELI

the lemon curd filled ones by a recipe from the latest edition of SCHROT & KORN

and the spiced ones with white chocolate and sugar sprinkles - i just made them up

all of them were quite hard in the beginning but "aged" beautifully in my grandmother´s cookie tins

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i also made a Turkish coffee cake from Margot Henderson´s cook book "You´re All Invited"

which i just had to have after watching her on MUNCHIES a while back
but i did not turn out like i hope it would, probably got something wrong
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also just ordered Claire Ptak´s new book
and i can´t wait to make her chocolate cake with Amarena cherries
which can be found HERE, since she has a column at The Guardian now
also: BUCKWHEAT CREPE
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want start reading ELENA FERRANTE´S books
(a member of our BOOKCLUB suggested them, another one CASSANDRA AT THE WEDDING
and we´re also really into the OLD FILTH triology
AND we´re reading Nigel Hinton´s In the Heart of the Valley next in case you want to join)
THE THE BEST WEATHER EFFECTS IN FICTION
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oh, it looks like i missed out in this year´s christmas edition of Jamie Magazine (my favorite issue)
so in case i´ve got some readers from Great Britain - save me one, please!
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it´s been LETTERED PENDANT madness in our workshop for weeks now
and W constructed the world´s heaviest brass fire wood carrier for my mum
i won´t touch it, it might break my back (again) but she´s in love
so i might post some pictures of the finished thing sometimes
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and since i probably won´t post here again before the big holidays:
Merry Christmas everyone!