Happy Halloween!

Sunday cake - Never judge a macaron by it's cover

I made macarons today. They are horribly looking but taste delicious! The shell tastes like lemon and the filling is salted caramel...

Zombie Saturday - DIY Zombie

Maybe you are stuck at your desk for quite some time everyday like me and feel a bit lonely? This little fellow (who is fully functional in the brain eating department!) can keep you some company:

Link to pattern and tutorial

Week in Review 43/2013

What did I see?
A new episode of Bones and Criminal Minds. Again. Sorry I'm not interesting right now... But I borrowed Rango and Terry Pratchet's Going Postal from my Brother and try to watch it this weekend! And I saw a belly dancing show in which my mum participated. Which was rather good!

What did I listen to?
Faun - Egil Saga

What did I ask myself?
What happens when I run out of adrenaline?


What did I read?
A lot of papers and the second part of the Monstrumologist: Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey.The book is so tense and interesting I can hardly lay it down!

What did I work on?
PhD Defense and two publications. Nothing creative...

I was happy about...
That both papers are handed in. Good news!


I was annoyed about...
Being so unfocused. Hopefully I'll be more rested and centered once this defense is over!

I bought...
Jewelry and formal wear for the defense. Do I sound repetitive already?

Fabric haul - very small...

Even more shopping today. I can assure you that I spent all my money already, so there won't be much to come... ;)

When I visited Neisella for our last sewing date, she presented me some beautiful fabric she recently bought. In fact she bought so much that I thought there would be hardly any leftovers... ;) The thick red coat fabric with black rose print made me fall in love so badly that I ordered it right away - thanks to new technology, cell phone Internet and Neisella's tablet! I only bought 2 m:

Link to the shop pic which is way better

I'd like to use it for historical sewing, maybe a Talma wrap (Pattern by Truely Victorian) or something like the cape Irene Adler wore in the Sherlock Holmes Movies...

I also bought 3m dark green tafeta which I will turn into another skirt for the fall tornure. Should give me some variety!

Shannon Rutherford's Questions

Shannon Rutherford posted some questions and yummy food pictures on her Blog "Drinking not Studying" and the pictures animated me to answer the same questions as well! If anyone is interested in taking up the quiz, feel free to do so!

1- Do you rather get everything immediately or patiently wait until the right moment to get what you want?

I'm not a patient person. I can wait out purchases for example, but experiments that don't work after 5-6 trials really annoy me. I'm somewhat used to this frustration, so I can continue anyway. But it still sucks!

2-What is your absolute favourite nail polish colour?

Red! Diva red, dark red, glittery red, but most nail polishes I own are red"

3-Where do you see yourself 20 years from now?

I hopefully will have an interesting job, lived some years in a foreign country and be happy with what I achieved. But I have no concrete plans for the future...

4-Would you say you're really happy about what you do in your everyday life?

Yes. Sometimes it's frustrating and I don't like every part of my job, but on a whole, I'd do the same even if I won several millions in the lottery!

5- Which one do you prefer to wear: tartan, dots or plain colours? Or neither?

I prefer plain colours. I do own some patterned shirts and blouses, but most of my clothes don't have patterns.

6- How do you see yourself 20 years from now (I mean physically)?

Fat and flabby, like Shannon. In 20 years I'll be almost 50, so I don't expect I'll have peachy wrinkle free skin and a flat stomach!

7- Do you wear heels?

Sometimes. At work at most 5cm heels, at parties up to 9cm. But usually only if I know there are seats available and I don't want to dance.

8- Are you happy now, in this very moment?

Mostly, yes. I'm nervous because of the Defense, but I'm generally a rather happy person. I'm an optimist and seldom have bad moods.

9- Which is your favourite food?

Spaghetti alio e olio e scampi.

Dark chocolate.

And all kinds of Indian or Thai curries.

10- Which is that one thing you like doing the most, the one that makes you fulfilled, the one you're really good at?

Hmmm. I'm a quick and avid reader. I do sew and DIY a lot, but I'm not as inspired as other people I know. I'm more a Jack of all Traits than particularly good in one task!

11- Does that thing (in question 10) occupy most of your day?

I do a lot of stuff every day, so yes! ^^

Jewelry haul

I have to admit, I'm currently a bit stressed out. And although I know that buying material stuff will not
help me to overcome my fear of the defence
lessen my stress level anyway
make my wallet happy,

I do find it makes me a little bit happier! I know that bird skulls are all the rage (or at least were so last year and are currently loosing popularity), but I wanted one anyway. *Wollmaus* has a really pretty one, I think Neisella also owns one or two and when I saw the shop Regalrose on Milktea's blog, I was finally settled on which one to buy. Even better yet: It was on sale!

Besides the pretty necklace, I also bought a matching ring:

Size reference and proof that I'll never be a handmodell! ;)

And they also had other pretty stuff on sale! After filling my shopping basket with more stuff than my bank account could bear, I finally downgraded it to this earrings and matching bracelet with silvery bones:

I didn't pay less than 10 Euros this time (so it is not comparable to Chinese Ebay ^^), but the quality is really good. The jewelry has some weight but doesn't pull down your earlobes. There is no discolouration of the skin and not enough Nickle to make me react to it. Maybe next month I'll spare the shop Regalrose another visit?!

Week in Review 42/2013

What did I see?
A new episode of Bones and Criminal Minds. Both were good as usual!

What did I listen to?
Ylvis -The fox (What does the fox say?) (finally found out what caused this Internet hype)

What did I ask myself?
What does the fox say? ^^


What did I read?
Again, papers only. *MustbepreparedorIwilldie*

What did I work on?
PhD Defense. Everything else suffers...

I was happy about...
The endless support my boyfriend offer! Plus my lovely family!


I was annoyed about...
Someone constantly changing her mind. Wargh!

I bought...
Green Jeans and a shirt.

China Ebay jewelry

Quite often I stumble upon people who feature punky and gothy jewelry that they bought from the chinese Ebay. This lowers the price a lot since you don't have to pay any middle men. I was a bit sceptic about the quality, but in the end I decided that I am willing to take the risk. Most of the jewelry you can buy here in Germany is made in cheap asian countries anyway (I don't want to judge the culture, I'm just speaking about labor cost), so most likely this is the exact same stuff for less money.

I bought a ring with bird talons and a small armband with skulls at the end. The quality is okay, the armband contains nickel - I can say that because I'm allergic and my skin prickles when I wear it. I just coated it with clear nail polish, so I can wear it without eczema! ;) The ring doesn't contain nickel, but colours the skin greenish, most probably because it contains copper. Again, clear nail polish rescues the day and makes the ring more wearable! And the best thing is - I only paid 4 Euros including shipping for both pieces together...

Sunday Sweet - Voodoo priests and angels

Todays post might be a bit lame, but well. I did the chocolate muffins with chocolate topping and bone sprinkles again. The other half of the muffin tray was lemon muffins with lemon icing and silver sprinkles. Right next to each other it looks a bit like the border of a war good against evil:

These made me really happy as I love chocolate! Plus they were all gone at the end of the day...

And these were mainly for my lovely boyfriend who didn't get cake he likes for a long time...

Zombie Saturday - Zombie Make up by MissChievous

Maybe an idea for your Halloween Make up? Julia Graf is using only stuff you can get in your local drugstore to achieve this amazing look:

link to video tutorial

Week in Review 41/2013

What did I see?
A new episode of Bones. And the first episode of Fashion Hero, which I didn't like. Project Runway is so much better!

What did I listen to?
Disturbed "Darkness" - Re-discovered on the train ride home. I love the softness of the song, very unlike most other Disturbed songs!

What did I ask myself?
Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, will I make this?


What did I read?
A lot of papers as a preparation for my upcoming PhD defense. *gulp*

What did I work on?
Nothing.

I was happy about...
I finally received my appointment for the PhD Defense. Keep your fingers crossed on the 30th of October! And my friend visiting this weekend, I'm so excited!


I was annoyed about...
Being badly prepared. I knew about this!

I bought...
Nothing.

Hamburg shopping haul

As I mentioned in the previous posts, I spent some money in Hamburg. I didn't spend much as my boyfriend and I will both be unemployed at the end of the year and we are already saving up a bit. But when I saw the wonderful cupcake decoration store, I simply had to get in! It is quite hard to find Wilson supply here in Germany so I was more than happy to be able to buy all the stuff without horrible shipping:

Hamburg - travel journal 3

On our last day, we again had perfect weather. Blue sky, few clouds, warm sun and little wind. Our first stop was to visit the Michel, the most famous church in Hamburg. The actual name is St. Michaelis and visiting the church itself is free. The church is rather pretty with wide walls and little gold decoration with 5 impressive organs. There is also the option to climb the church tower and you should definitively do this! You can see a lot of Hamburg from up there and the price is okay (3 Euro with Hamburg card, 4 Euros without). The crypt was not as good, there were some old documents and grave decorations but it is in my mind not worth the price (3 Euros without Hamburg card or 4 Euros in combination with the Tower visit and Hamburg card).

When we walked through the pretty old houses you can see bird's view in the last picture, we discovered that we were close to Planten and Bloemen, a former plant exhibition that is now a regular park. Really cool, free and with lots of different sections. There is even a Japanese Tea house which offers tea ceremonies on Sundays!

We took a little stroll through St. Pauli and saw a shop which I would have loved to visit: "St. Paula" with glorious cupcakes and cakes on display! Unfortunately is is opened from Thursday to Sunday, so I'll go there next time!

We took our lunch at the Landungsbrücken again to eat some more Hamburgian food: Krabbenbrötchen! It was nice to sit in the sun and eat some yummi Nordseekrabben!

We also visited the Panoptikum which is a German wax works exhibition. Some of the figures were pretty nice, but the exhibition was rather small and many of the VIP figures didn't look so much like the VIPs themselves... The horror section was exactly 4 figures and some splattered body parts. The entry fee was okay (4,50 Euro with Hamburg card, but I would recommend going there unless you have a serious interest in wax figures!

What I can recommend is the Thalia Cafe in the Europa Passage. There is not much of a cafe there (you can get some coffee from a machine yourself for 1,50 Euro), but the view on the Jungfernstiege and Binnenalster is great! In the same passage, there is also a cupcake decoration store with amazing stuff. I bought a little and could have bought so much more!

Before leaving, we wanted to eat some more and went to the Persian restaurant Qasr which was close to the hotel. The food was amazing and normally prized, so I can only recommend to go there when you are in Hamburg!

Then it was time to leave, we grabbed our stuff from the hotel, went to the train station and left Hamburg for this time. We will come back though!

Hamburg - travel journal 2

The next day we first went to the Kiloshop in Altona - a thrift shop where you pay clothes by the kilo. One kilo of clothes was 15 Euro. I bought two pants and a pullover, my boyfriend got a suit jacket (by Hugo Boss oO).

After that we went to Hachez Chocoversum, a museum for chocolate (for 12-13 Euro with Hamburg card). You get a 90 minute guided tour which explains how you make chocolate from chocolate beans and - best thing about this  museum- get to make your individual chocolate! You get some melted milk chocolate and can add diverse toppings to make it better!

Next we were a little hungry for something savory after trying what felt like half a kilogramme of chocolate. Really close to the Chocoversum is the Chilehaus which houses the Suppenladen, a little restaurant that only serves soups. The offer 8 different soups in two sizes for very little money (4-6 Euro). The soup was delicious and the large sized chili con carne was too much food even for my boyfriend!

We then brought our bags and chocolates back to the hotel because there was a Görtz outlet next to the hotel and I wanted to check that for what else than shoes? Of course I fell in love with one pair of shoes - they are blue booties made from real leather and were only 30 Euros! My boyfriend also saw some shoes but didn't end up buying them...

Our next stop was the Museum of Photograpy which conveniently has lowered entrance fees on Tuesday afternoon (4,50 Euro past 4 p.m.), but  when we were at the entrance my lovely boyfriend decided that he didn't want to visit the museum after all as it was more about artitistic pictures than about how to take them. So we just sat outside the museum in the Strandkörbe in front of a little restaurant in the bright and warm sunshine. It was lovely!

Then we went to the Speicherstadt where the sweetest boyfriend of them all took a million pictures of waterways and old storage buildings.

Surprisingly, we were hungry again and decided to hunt for a typical Northern restaurant with lots of fish meals! We ended up in the Kontor and the food was great! My boyfriend had Scholle and hashed browns, I has Tagliatelle with tomato cream sauce and crayfish. The restaurant is really cute with lots of decorations from boats, definetively recommended!

And then we went on to the final stop of the day: The Miniatur Wunderland! For my foreign readers: This is a immensely detailed model railway. Sounds boring? No, it was amazing! They built models of the alps which were up to 5 meters high, had a model of Las Vegas and the Grand Canion, a whole airport with landing machines... It was great! If you plan to go there, I can recommend a reservation over Internet - not only does this give you 10% discount (we ended up paying 11 Euro each with Hamburg Card and pre-reservation discount), you can also avoid waiting in long lines. I can also recommend going there on Tuesday evening when the Wunderland is open until 9 p.m.. We spent 3 hours there and the area was not overly crowded with people...

Finally we went back to the hotel and crashed into our beds with burning feet!

Hamburg - travel journal 1

Last week I spent a few day with my boyfriend (who took all the amazing pictures in this and the upcoming blog entries!) in Hamburg, one of my favourite German cities! Unlike Berlin, staying in Hamburg is rather expensive even on youth hostel level. We got an amazing deal and spent only 160 Euro per person on the train trip and hotel for 3 days.

As soon as we arrived, we bought the Hamburg card which allowed us to use public transport for three days and had additional boni when visiting museums or sights (22 Euro). If you are still a student and therefore recieve reduced entrance fees anyway, buying three single day tickets might be cheaper though...

On the first day, we tried to follow a little walking tour in one of the travel guides I borrowed from my family. We are avid travelers to nordic cities, preferable by the sea. One of my uncles even has his own boat! The tour started at the town hall and walked us through the inner city via Gänsemarkt, Jungfernstieg and the main churches of Hamburg (free).

Then we went to the Landungsbrücken (harbour for the touristic ships) and took a first look at the Elbe. The public transport also has some boats to connect all parts of the harbour which you can use with a regular ticket. We took the line 62 which did a 1 hour round trip through the harbour (free with Hamburg card)!

After resting our feet a bit on the ship, we walked underneath the Elbe through the old Elbtunnel (free) and took a little peek at the other side of the harbour.

Our next and last stop of the day was the infamous Reeperbahn. Since Hamburg is a harbour city where lots of sailors go on land visits, they want to fulfill their "needs". So very close to the harbour, there is a lot of gambling halls and brothels which are conveniently located on one street: The Reeperbahn. We got some food in a horrible food place called "Die Scheune" (don't go there). We bought some cheap beer at the Esso gas station (which is often seen on TV) and walked up and down the street for a little while. After that we just went home to our warm and comfy hotel beds...

Sunday Sweet - Chocolate Cupcakes with bone sprinkles

After last weeks disaster with the dry and crumbly cupcakes from the zombie cupcake book, I decided to go the save route this time. I made chocolate cupcakes with my usual recipe for a sewing date with Neisella. And since we are nearing Halloween, I decided to add a little spooky extra: Bone sprinkles! They are by Wilson and I bought them via Amazon as they are simply not available in German stores. I envy you US americans, your government might be shut down, but Halloween supply is widely available!

Zombie Saturday - Zombies