Some projects

The book that my mum wrote…

Yesterday was my mother’s book launch.

It is her first book. A small novel, a story about reinventing your life, and impossible love. It’s cool and I am really happy for her.

The book launch was very successful and there was even a small tear in the corner of everyone’s eye. My dad organise everything, he was really proud of her. I am really proud of both of them! ♥

Unfortunately to those of you who can’t read Portuguese, you’ll have to wait until the translated versions come out, which, I am sure, will be really soon. If you do read Portuguese (this includes Brazilian Portuguese, of course! Since the book is also published in Brazil), watch out for this book – “no silêncio da noite, o rouxinol disse…” Published by Chiado Editora.

When they were designing the cover I proposed a couple of designs:Capa do livro-estrelas azuis2

capa do livro moderna

Anyway, they didn’t go with any of my suggestions and decided to go with this one:

capa final do livro

Weekend plans and panoramic views

panorama - holga1- Brazil

Some time ago I was obsessed with trying to take pictures that could be put together as a panoramic photo. Some of them turned out ok (what do you think?)! I then gave up on this idea….. but this week I was thinking I should play around with this a bit more.panorama polaroid - Brazil

So, my plan for this weekend is to find the perfect panoramic view in the area. The question is: will I be able to find it?…. I’ll let you know…

Do you have plans for your weekend too?

panorama-holga2-Brazil

The complete history of my DIY failures – part I

IMG_2419

Welcome to the complete history of my DIY failures! I will start by saying that these failures actually turned out to be successes in the end, but let’s just say that both the process and the outcome are not exactly what we planned initially! Yes, WE! My boyfriend/flatmate/partner in crime, Dr. E, should also be held accountable for the successes and failures!

Our new rented flat is more or less a bad taste nightmare, I mean not bad taste kitschy cool, I mean bad taste nightmare. It has this crazy textured plaster that was popular for 5 secs in the 80’s, it has butt ugly doors with yellowish glass, it has beige floor tiles … not to mention the bathroom… For your own health and safety I will spare you the bathroom. Saying all of this, we love it! We have lots of light and space.

Part I – painting tiles

So, the kitchen tiles were originally also beige and had tea pot motives, as I said: bad taste 80’s… to save us some time and money we decided to paint the tiles. I originally wanted to paint them turquoise but Dr. E wanted dark navy blue, we reached an agreement on Marine blue. But, wait! I forgot to tell you that, of course, at the DIY market, they only had paint specifically for tiles in white and beige – these colours were out of the question! So we bought paint that could be used in pretty much any kind of surface, apart from… you guessed it: TILES.

This little fact did not deter us from using this paint on the tiles. Just because the instructions on the tin mentioned every single surface type on the planet apart from tiles does not mean that it can’t be used on tiles – right?  Well! Kind of. Everything was going splendidly, until I applied the second layer of paint and one of the paintbrush hairs got stuck to the paint… when I was trying to scrape it off … I realised that the paint was peeling off and it seemed as if I could have peeled all the paint off the whole wall in one go!!!!!

So this is the state of affairs now! The tiles are painted and look great, but if we make the smallest of scratches on the wall…. That will be the end of our lovely marine blue tiled kitchen wall. It has been 3 months now!

Kitchen Before
Kitchen tiles after

Germany and the love of Nutella

Here’s a few things I didn’t know about Germany before I moved here:

1. It gets really hot in the summer
2. You actually don’t see people naked in the parks
3. Nutella rules
4. Not everyone likes sausage
5. Turkish food is delicious
6. They love to have long breakfasts at weekends

There’s other things but I’ve decided to focus only on the positives 😉

Meanwhile, I have also embraced some of the local love of Nutella and have baked a few delicious treats with this divine spread. I have found the recipes in some American sites, since it seems, Americans are as fascinated with Nutella as the Germans.

If you’re wondering how a cup of Nutella looks like, here it is

Here’s a recipe I got from the site Ambitious Kitchen. Is dead easy and very popular!

Easy, fudgy 5-ingredient Nutella Cookies with Sea Salt
Author: Monique of AmbitiousKitchen.com
Serves: 12-14 cookies
Ingredients

  • 1 cup nutella
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup flour + 1 tablespoon
  • coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Combine all ingredients besides salt in a large bowl with electric mixer until well combined. Place dough in freezer for 10 minutes.
  3. After 10 minutes roll dough into approximately 1-inch balls, place on ungreased baking sheet at least two inches apart and bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes until cookies are set, then very carefully transfer to a wire rack. Generously sprinkle with sea salt.

Another popular Nutella recipe I’ve tried is: Nutella Brownie Cheescake Bites, from US Masala blog.

If you decide to try it, let me know what you think about it!