Merry Christmas

With this picture of my dream outfit for Christmas Eve, I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas.
Remember to relax on this day (believe me, I will when I’m done at work), as it is pure perfection wrapped in a beautiful gift for us all to open.

Preparations

The last days before Christmas always seem to be over in 1/562 of the time I spend waiting for them. And even though I like to think I’ve done tons of Christmassy things, I know there are so many (as in way too many) things I still haven’t done. But while catching reruns of America’s Next Top Model and frantically reading Lindsey Kelk’s “I Heart New York” (I can’t wait for July and the Paris version!), I’ve managed to make an ice lantern, marzipan chocolate and cinnamon applesauce ornaments. Phew, now I know why I’ve felt so busy!

Making this lantern is super easy. You pour some water in a bucket, let it stay outside until frozen (negative 10 degrees Celsius made that more than possible for me), pour some more water in the bucket, but this time you put a smaller bucket in the middle (put in some heavy rocks in it to avoid it floating). If you want more than just a block of shining ice, you can put in pine cones, straw, red ribbons, or like me: some pine sprigs and red berries.
It makes an excellent welcome lantern for Christmas parties.

The next day I went on making cinnamon applesauce ornaments, which I will leave to are so happy to show how it’s done; my dough did not resemble sugar cookie dough, but the house still smelled of cinnamon, one of my favourite tastes – and smells – in the whole wide world. (PS: Don’t taste the dough, it turns out there is such a thing as too much cinnamon..)

Then it was time for my traditional marzipan chocolates. I make these every single year, and have done so for as long as I can remember. I melt chocolate in a water bath (be careful, because chocolate is not suppose to boil, simply melt), then cover all the hearts in the form before I let it cool down in the coldest room in the house. Do not freeze chocolate, ever, because it oxidizes and leaves a kind of white-ish layer on the outside, which doesn’t change the taste, it just doesn’t look as good. I usually give a lot of these chocolates away, so I like for them to look as beautiful as they can.

Then I shove as much marzipan as I can into the hearts, before I cover with a dash of chocolate. I use a brush to make sure the chocolate covers all the marzipan. Then I put it back in to that cold room. After a while I carefully remove the hearts from the form, I wrap them in aluminium foil and put them in customised jam jars: A perfect gift!

Lastly I went out and picked spruce cones which I sprayed with glitter. They’ll be perfect on my Christmas tree, along with some of my other ornaments. I hope..
Now back to gift wrapping and tag making!

The Outnet: Burberry Prorsum

I receive newsletters from The Outnet all the time, but I never get more excited than when I see the words Burberry Prorsum or Chloé. Today was a Burberry Prorsum day.

My heart actually skips a beat when I see this dress on Julia Restoin-Rotfeld. She’s gorgous, the dress is divine; I need that dress, and here’s my chance. It would just be perfect for Christmas Eve, even though I would have to sell/not buy any gifts for any family member or friend. But with that heavenly black fabric, I could probably get away with it!

A Holiday Paradise

If you mix 2 different, yet equally gorgeous, women, 2 fantastic homes, 1 insanely hot guy and 1 really funny guy (they might not be equally gorgeous, but then again, no one can quite compare to Jude Law….), and 1 great story, you get The Holiday. Such a fantastic movie, but also such fantastic interior design! I love both Amanda and Iris’ houses, but it is Iris’ cottage I would have loved to live in myself.

Imagine cuddling up in that chair reading a chick-lit book like for example Lindsey Kelk’s “I Heart New York”

Ever since I saw the movie for the first time, I’ve wanted to buy the house, but I just read here (where also all the images are from) that it was only built for the movie and torn down straight after filming. It actually makes my heart ache a little..

Edinburgh; vol. 3

Okay, so this is (probably) the last post about Edinburgh for a while, therefore I decided to make it a good one.
As previously mentioned (just a couple of times), I adore Christmas; and what’s a Christmas without ornaments? Every December since I was teeny tiny I’ve spent hours – and probably days – in my bedroom, making gifts for mum and dad. I love to give, and what better gift to receive than one filled with love?
I imagine decorating every little corner of my future home with ornaments like these:

You know when the smell of freshly baked cakes fills the house, and the first ornaments are coming up? Man, I only seem to write about food and ornaments. Anyways, that’s how I feel right now! My dad made one of our traditional cakes (yes, my dad makes most of the Christmas cakes in this house) and brought me a piece, while I’m opening my 14th Advent calendar gift.
And that is one of the reasons why I love Christmas.

Edinburgh; vol. 2

One of my favourite parts of travelling is the new and exciting food you can eat. You see, I always tell myself that on vacations I can just eat whatever I want. This time of year “whatever I want” is mostly cake and gingerbread lattes. It’s my curse and my .. umm.. curse? Because even though I’d love to be the kind of gal who eats half a piece of cake and and stops at that, I’m not. I could literally live on cake (I rarely become nauseas and if I do, it passes within 5 minutes), which is why the gingerbread loaf cake from Starbucks along with a gingerbread latte (with cream) was just heavenly. I’m definitely going to try to make it myself so come back during next week to check it out!

We had tapas one of the days, and that meal made me a tapas-addict! I’ve tasted  bits and pieces here and there, but nothing as good as this. The salmon with spinach, pear and raisins was divine.

On the last day we went to TGI Friday’s for lunch. We arrived starving  a full hour before they opened, so we became the freaky foreigners who frolicked outside of Friday’s (no, we didn’t actually frolick, it just fitted with my f-wordplay).

Edinburgh; vol. 1

I had an absolutely wonderful time in Edinburgh! So wonderful i fact, that I’ve spent the last 3 hours looking at – and editing – the photos we took. They were quite a few so I’ve decided to split the trip into 3 posts: The city, food and small things I liked (mostly Christmas ornaments, I’m a sucker for them..).

Starting today (2 days late, sorry to the two who requested an update!) with the city of Edinburgh.
I visited the city once on a trip with my choir, but I was young and restless and the only thing I remember is the castle. Allthough we didn’t get to visit the old town, I defenitely saw more this time.

A little visit to Julie’s school, Queen Margaret University.

Okay, I admit it; these photos do resemble Christmas ornaments. A lot.
But I just can’t help it! Besides, they are the only pictures I have from our short trip to Glasgow. That’s my excuse. I mean, just look at those reindeers.

Stay tuned for the food we ate and the ornaments I loved,  but until then: Have a wonderful Saturday evening!

Beware: Starbucks!

Later today I’m leaving for Edinburgh, Scotland.
My friend Ida and I are staying from Sunday to Wednesday at our friend Julie’s apartment. All we plan to do is drink gingerbread lattes (I can literally hear the angels sing Hallelujah!) and walk around, enjoying the Christmas markets.

RyanAir is the airline of our “choice” (the tickets were so ridiculously cheap, it would actually be more expensive not going, or so I like telling myself). And after a probably very uncomfortable flight where our thoughts will evoke around crashing and/or cattle transportation, this is the gloomy, yet beautiful city that awaits us:

I’ll be back and blogging on Thursday; until then, Happy 2nd Sunday of Advent.

Pictures via Flickr: One and Two.

My Marks & Spencer

Every December 1st since I was born, I’ve woken up to my mum’s homemade Advent Calendar. 24 (well, technically it’s 48 for my mum to buy and wrap for both me and my sister) small gifts to make the waiting a little less torturous. Naturally, over the years my love for Christmas has outshone my love for presents, and at this point I truly love giving gifts  more than I love receiving them.
But that doesn’t mean I didn’t adore the warm socks I unwrapped this morning!

Over the years I’ve struggled to find gifts – mainly for my friends – to fit my budget. Being a student makes this year no different, and even though I’ve agreed with most of my friends to not give each other gifts, I just can’t stop myself from researching ideas.
How adorable aren’t these complete hot chocolate and tea kits? And to set the mood while I wrap the gifts in this wrapper (decorated with velvet ribbon, a sprig of spruce and homemade tag), I listen to this album, in the light of this and this candle.

The M&S mania comes from my upcoming trip to Edinburgh; more of that tomorrow.

Driving home for Christmas

… kinda. My fantastic friend Stine and I wanted to get home ASAP after classes ended, so on Thursday December 3rd at 08.25, our train left Trondheim. And even though 7 hours may seem long, the ride went by really fast. I finished Marian Keyes’ This Charming Man, and even though it’s not her best, I really enjoyed reading about Lola, Grace and Marnie’s problem(s); All of a sudden I feel so … normal.

I love December