lots of projects in the making

a sneak peak of a wonderful collaboration with Paula from OTCHIPOTCHI

prototypes of our new PUZZLE RINGS

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we tried to fix up this lamp from the fleamarket a lot of different ways

in the end i went with an ANA KRAS inspired version

i admire her designs even more now

but i am quite proud of the stripe details

now the apartment smells like linen, soldering flux, SESAME COOKIES and quince

this should be turned into a perfume

harsh but subtly sweet

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ALLES IST for RIKE

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cat and i are very fond of beautiful textiles

very cozy blanket from ZIERRAT UND GOLD

rug from MLN

(got it custom made to fit my hallway perfectly

now cat likes to surf on it

and place her mouses there

it´s clearly the best)

after reading Katherine Mansfield´s MISS BRILL

a honey cake became the saddest pastry out there to me

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"On her way home she usually bought a slice of honey cake at the baker's. 

It was her Sunday treat. 

Sometimes there was an almond in her slice, sometimes not. 

It made a great difference. 

If there was an almond it was like carrying home a tiny present - a surprise - 

something that might very well not have been there. 

She hurried on the almond Sundays and struck the match for the kettle in quite a dashing way. "

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Maira Kalman´s THE PRINCIPLES OF UNCERTAINTY made it a happy cake again

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"There is nothing illusory in this tiny heaven.

I am silent with gratitude.

I will go and bake a honey cake

and that´s all."

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the recipe is even included in her book

but since it was too sweet for me

i came up with my own version

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OLIVE OIL HONEY CAKE

2 eggs, beaten

add 100 ml honey + 60 ml olive oil

mix in 200g spelt flour + 1tsp baking soda + cinnamon and other spices as you like

add about 100ml very strong tea

until you have a fine dough

now you can put in some chopped up apples, nuts, raisins...

pour into a loaf pan - bottom lined (awesome trick)

i don´t recommend bundt pans

my cakes were to sticky to come out again in one piece

to make everybody´s Sunday an almond Sunday stud the cake tighly with almonds

bake about 45 min at 175 degrees celsius

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HONEY CAKE PENDANTS

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BEEKEEPERS QUILT

this one takes ages...

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and here´s an other treat for you:

i helped my sister and her boyfriend put up a blog

to show their work

GUT SEIN

(they´re lucky to be friends with a superb image editor as you can see

this is an underrated art)

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a nice ARTICLE about WSAKE in our local newspaper

when W asked me what i would be doing this weekend

and i told him i was planing on knitting a little suit for the cat

he didn´t think i was joking 

this is worrying

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later on i told my sister about my growing cacti collection

she said "cats and cacti - this is bad"

to make it even worse i got this old ribbon

and took a picture of swans

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it seems like i´m turning into a cliche single lady of a certain age

how odd that i´m actually working on something about that topic

but i guess brooding for weeks over the rentability and affordability of some projects

and trying to get some prototyps just right

seems to intensify my habits

when i´m not using the hammer my life is rather quiet

and if i do so i put on ear muffs

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there are so many boxtrees in this garden it sometimes makes me want to pull them all out

maybe doing THIS with them - BORNAY again, they do the most amazing things with plants

also those pears are dropping like fruitshaped bombs in the flower bed

so i had to move some damaged plants somewhere else

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the fog takes off most days

letting us enjoy a razor blue sky

so i´m okay with fall now

ordering rugs from MLN also helps

they make the coolest textiles ever

i like the clean shapes, designs and colours so very much

makes me wonder if i actually should have switched the textile design at art school

well, i´m not that into Fall

not yet

so i won´t join the praise of this dooming glorious season

to me it smells rotten

brings the cold (and cold related pains - maybe i need to move to an other climate)
the eternal fog in those areas near a big river is literally depressing
and always worse than expected - it hits me every time

and i can only apprechiate the morbide side o f it

to me sunflowers are only bearable in their dying state

also got some strawflowers at the farmers market

(judging by the looks the lady who sold them gave me, 

those are only supposed to be bought by the elderly)

put them in an odd ice cream vessel from ZIERRAT AND GOLD

and might use them in a couple of months in a flower arrangement for my grandmothers grave

(last time at the hardwear store i found some hot glued on top of some cacti

so i might do something similar - put them onto some bare branches)

to drive all the other ambitious grave decorators mad

joyous times

i guess it´s okay with my grandmother

she used to have tea with rum after her visit to the graveyard on All Saints Day

probably not only due to the cold weather

"dear lord, the things i´ve seen..."

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but i made a FALL GREETING CARD for you after all

and started putting all those bulbs in the soil

got best quality ones from the Netherlands

they seem to burst with life any minute

and those grapes are really beautiful - grown in our tiny vinyard

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went to a excellent exhibiton of HEINZ BRAUN

and i guess my thoughts had nothing to do with the shown work

but i had to urge to create an outlet for the crazy, the unfiltered, not so pretty

do stuff that doesn´t need to be representable
my own delicious secret

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HUMANS OF NEW YORK 

an article on the sadness of gen-y on MAN REPELLER
(guess we should try to achive our personal best instead of the over all best)

WHY INSTAGRAM IS DEPRESSING

(used to get in a bad mood looking at perfect online lifes

even before joining facebook and the blogging world

when i do so now i sometimes reach out to those who seemingly have it all

and tell them how impressed i am

always turns out they´re very human after all (and mostly very nice))

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a nice APRON
awesome HYDRO TERRARIUMS

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oh, in case someone wants some geranium cuttings

i´m cutting down all of my old plants and would be happy to send some your way










 

this clematis is called "My Angel" 

it has the prettiest tiny red and yellow bells

so glad i ordered it this Spring together with all these English roses

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a GOLDSTÜCK

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lately i don´t have so much luck with baking

it´s probably because i´m trying out all these fats instead of cow butter

sheep butter doesn´t work i guess

(does anyone know about that?!)

made shortbread twice and it turned into crumbles

bubbling crumbles - the oddest kind

but nice on top of blackberries

shaken to mush on the bike ride

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and then the thing with the olive oil galette crust...

i´ve mastered it now and am in love with it

already had it with rainbow chard, beetroot and blachberries + feta

the first time i had to eat it with a soon though

but it didn´t matter since i was reading a book a MAIRA KALMAN while doing so

which made me really happy

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GATHER is wonderful, too 

you can learn how to bake a Pyscho cherry pie

good to know

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some fall plants

an odd cactus

and a TINY BOUQET from a confused looking meadow

it was like it thought Spring had started all over

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took the cat to the vet

which is a big deal for a wild creature like her

got treated for worms and all other things a cat needs

i feel very happy she choose to stay with me for a while

swapping her exciting wild life for endless hours on my sofa

followed by an attempt trying to kill that carpet 

again and again

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and welcome to the world, little Theo!