{bride} wear the cake and eat it

For those of you that like me love to create in fabric and in the kitchen, have you ever thought to put the two together??
Amazing art. Cream, flour and sugar are the exception for this incredible piece of art.  Wedding gown & cake by Lukka Sigurdardottir.

No I would never wear it, but don't you just love the rainbow color filling??

{documented on Gather and Nest}

i think I'm gonna bake tonight

Treccia Bernese, Zopf Bread

I need a brake from packing, and all the other 100 things I need to do before flying back to LA. Baking relaxes me for some reason and the choice was easy... I wanted to finish in a very Swiss way :)
My bro and I had fun in my mom's little kitchen {my pictures and more info to come}.

{pictures by kitschenette and Once upon a cakestand}

{bride} true love does exist

and mine is made out of....

 

flowers for my brides! yep

and I love this once at for the bride by ban.dö

{calendar} 2010

I love calendars. I don't know why. I still have to figure it out.

I usually have around more then one, and usually it's cause I love the pictures on it. I love those big photography of food delights for my kitchen, cute drawings for the bedroom, and some of beautiful Swiss scenery (since I'm faraway) for the living room.
But don't take me wrong, beside the pictures I'm that kind of person that has to write down everything to not forget them. So I do have my lists all over the places. I do prefer calendars by far.. ooh every year I need to make sure I don't "over collect" them hahaha :)

Here is a calendar 2010 for you to make your very own, provided by Something's Hiding in There. To download and print go directly on their site here.

How lovely and nice to make this available for everyone :) thank you!

great idea of chalkborad calendar by Something's Hiding in There, via Sincerely Katrina
i just discovered them and loOVE them!

an explosion of summer in winter time

Oh finally I've found something that really makes me hungry. After all this holidays and all the amazing food, sweets and all my body is craving for something fresh, light and healthy.
Don't take me wrong, cause coming back to Switzerland and taste the great food we have here has been fantastic. Finally my husband was able to have more time to taste the great bread, Pandoro, pastries, cheese, salame, pasta.. oooh so many things. But goodness, I need ...mmm, to get lighter :) You know what I mean right?? hahahaha :)


Risotto Fragole e Mirtilli

This recipe from Basilico e Pinoli is perfect. Vitamines and a real explosion of summer!

Ingredients:

240 gr. rice for Risotto

6 dl of broth

about 10 big strawberries

80g blueberries

1/2 onion

1/2 cup of white wine

butter

parmesan cheese

Fry the onion in butter and toast the rice. Then add the wine and let it evaporate.

Pour the broth, the chopped strawberries and blueberries. Close the pot with a lid and bring to high temperature.

When it begins to boil wait 3 minutes then turn the temperature on low and let it continue cooking for 30 minutes.

When ready add the butter and Parmesan cheese and let thicken.

Serve in dishes and decorate with some extra fresh strawberries and blueberries.

Buon Appetito!

P.S. using HotPan could be much easier, but I don't have one (yes and it is a Swiss product!!). So here is some info for you.

For the recipe in Italian go directly on Basilico e Pinoli

HAPPY NEW YEAR in Icy Cakes!

Bakerella made it again: ooh I feel in wonderland right now looking at this!

dreamy cake anyone?

the beautiful little artist, Emelie from Sweden

I just can't believe of such beautiful "baking"outside in the cold.. who can handle that and on top making such little cute pieces with gloves on?? Let me tell you I'm amazed.

It brings me back into the past, when little girl I used to play with snow until I had to go back inside, cause mom said so, not cause I wanted to. And ok, cause it was just good sense to get back inside when it became dark. For me I could have slept outside in the little igloo I had made. But hey, what can adults understand about the beauty of being outdoors playing with the beautiful creamy white snow? Cold? Naaaaa!

I just couldn't resist! Thank's Bakerella for sharing with us. What a great story, a great way to deal with it and creative and even more beautiful work. Read more about Emilie's story.

I wish my husband was still here with me today (flew back yesterday to LA), cause with all the snow we got here in Switzerland tonight, I would have dragged him out to "bake" something delicious with me :) For some reason today I don't like snow without him.. (missing him terribly?? naa..). I can't wait to have some little girls to do some stuff like this.. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

That your 2010 may be as colorful, as bright, as creative, as sweet, as amazing, as dreamy, as fresh, as delightful! :)

{Christmas} Nativity "in your hands"

when you love it so much, you just want to "hold it" in your hands all the time!

My little niece loves a pair of gloves I gave her some years ago with cute faces on her fingers. Now, the years have passed but she could care less about her hands getting bigger and those gloves getting smaller. She's still wearing them. I've looked around but I just couldn't find some new once for her, until this pair here. And fact is I love the nativity. This could be a cute one for the little one.

Nativity Puppet Glove Set you can find it here for purchase on Deseret book.

Christmas wishes~in snow flakes

A colored and very original way of wishing a Merry Christmas to your loved one. Bakerella still surprises me and I love it. Must be the amazing snow outside, or the smell of sweet cookies in the oven.. I just love this! Recipe and direction for fantastic cones in white snow flakes here!

{Candy Cane Christmas Tree Cupcakes}

I'm feeling cozy

must be the first snow falling, the fire craking on my back, the candle lights and smell of tangerins..
all I want is to wrap me up with a nice white soft blanket :)

{Switzerland wonderland..}

Advent Calendar 2009

This year despite all my plans to do and make things for people I'm ending up doing nothing. But Thank goodness for friends.. Yep THANK YOU!
Cause when it comes to hard times, the good friends are the one that make a difference :)

My advent Calendar this year is a beautiful one made by my dear friend Cathrin, love u girl!

Some of the messages I found in my advent calendar:

" a little boy is crying on his knotty chair.. and he tells his mother.. "

"if you're raising me right, how come I get into SO much trouble??.." :)

{Dennis The Menace by Ketcham}

"Love is what's in a room with you at Christmas,if you stop opening presents and listen."

{Bobby- age7} WOW!

The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said:

"Nothing, I just helped him cry."

"Love is like a little old woman and little old man who are still friends

even after they know each other so well."

{Tommy- age 6}

Vintage Advent Calendars

If you are a sentimental like me, you probably find that the things that remind you of your childhood keep popping out of your memories and bring a special magic especially now around Christmas.
Who knows, maybe I'm talking only about myself, but Christmas is definitely the time where my taste go in direct semblance of my childhood.
And maybe that's why I still think that the old kinds of Advent Calendar are the best. You know? The one with those beautiful drawings. No chocolate, no candies, just beautiful drawings that give you the chance to dream a little more..
Ok I need to show you some of them:

The past years I've found a little shop in Winterthur-Zurich, Switzerland, where they sell them. Oh I started making a little collection for my future kids. I know crazy, I know.. Never done it before but I was afraid that by the time I'll have kids, I won't find this beautiful pieces anymore.

But maybe I was wrong cause they are still around and here is a place I found online where they sell them in the States. GREAT! Granted not all of them are the same style, so you have to look for the good once. Take a look at  

and happy old memories!

here and away

Away for a while, I might not be around much, but soon I'll be back.. in few months.

For now happy Advent Everyone!

paper blooming INTO flowers!

I'm trying to decide how to make our Christmas Cards this year. I need to go the cheapest ever, but I like the handmade stuff... so that could be tricky.

When I saw this I couldn't believe it! But yep, it can totally work. It reminds me when I was little and in elementary school we made paper. Makes me want to add some seeds now in it, cause this is a great idea.
Cards can be beautiful, but how many of them end up in the trash leaving nothing??

And I have to say I even like the design on it. They've made such a great veriety of cards for any occasion. From favor tags, business cards to Christmas Cards..

To know more about how this works, who makes it, the great design behind it and where you can buy it, well it's all by Botanical Paper Work. Check out their photo gallery of "paper in bloom"! Fantastic!

{Fort Contest} Where the Wild Things Are

For an early birthday present for my husband we went to watch  Where The Wild Things Are. Yes cause of all the things, this was probably the one he would like the most (he's getting 6 gifts this year.. do to his age ending with a 6).

We loved it so much! The funny thing is that because of the weird work's schedule my husband has lately, we ended up going on Monday morning at 11am. Do you know what that means? It means it was the schedule for Mom & kids movie time. We were the only couple with no kids. And beside the lights were not all off the entire time, babies crying, people walking around, we were just hooked to the movie and didn't noteced all that was going on. It really took us in a different world, the same world we were as kids.. or for some the same as they are in it now hahaha!

A fort's contest? I bet my husband would have gone crazy if we would have known it on time. Booooooom challenged readers to build their own fort, just like Max does in the movie. They posted all the entries, and winners, and oh how fun to take a look of other people's creativity. Here are some of my favorite, but go on Booooooo.com if you want to see them all.

{contest on Booooooom.com via Ohdeedoh}

{Ruffle me} Jacket

I love lOVE this Jacket from Free People