Christmas gift favorites: Part IV - Earrings by FRNCK

Before January comes to an end, I want to share a last Christmas gift with you...

... I posted about the jewellery by my friend Lea Marie Franck a few times already, like here or here and since I still love what she is doing, I want to share my newest pair of FRNCK earrings with you :)

I am in my pink phase right now... its fun, I never used to like pink but since 2014 I began loving pink. It started with the light pink jacket which I bought in Chicago last Spring and went on and on... I bought my first ever pink sweater in December last year. Well and I thought I need some pink earrings too. So how lucky am I that I got these from my friend?

If you like them, you should totally check out her website http://www.leamariefranck.com/ or her Etsy Shop. The jewellery is a little pricy, but everything is 100% handmade. I saw her making these kinds of earrings and necklaces so I know how much work is put into every single pair. The price is definetly worth what she is doing plus the great material she is using (walnut wood and sterling silver).

How do you like the earrings? I hope the weather will be a little better soon so that I will feel like going out and take some pictures with them ;) these days I really do not feel like making any outfit shootings since its dark, cold and grey outside. Its that grey, you would not even see the colors of my bright pink sweater if I would take it on picture (just kidding).

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! And thank you again for all your comments! I am so grateful for all of you! Seriously :)!

Food inspiration - Mashed parsnip

Time for a food post...

... so here we have mashed parsnip which I mashed together with carrots and potatoes. Then we have lambs lettuce and fried mushrooms with fried onions and garlic. Yummy, easy and healthy of course!

How to make this?

Its easy:
Cook (or steam-cook) the parsnip, the carrots and the potatoes (you can make 3/3 of each, or if you prefer you can also add more potatoes than parsnip, like that it will be less sweet - since both carrots and parsnips are sweet!) and mash the three veggies with some salt, mustard, black pepper and nutmeg. 

Fry the mushrooms together with small pieces of onion and some garlic and add salt and pepper. I used this as my salad dressing, but feel free to make a extra dressing for your salad if you feel like it!

And why is this good for you? 

First of all its good for the environment, because parsnip, carrots and potatoes are veggies which you can easily get in Winter without having them travel around the globe (talking from a German standpoint). 

And they are healthy for your body:

Parnships have plenty of antioxidants, they have an anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, and anti-cancer function and they are filled with lots of vitamins, like vitamin C, B, K and E. Last but not least they are a healthy source for iron, calcium, copper, potassium, manganese and phosphorus. Great or what? 

Carrots are mainly known for their high level of vitamin A, but they also provide vitamin C, Iron, and Calcium. In smaller amounts, carrots also contain fiber, vitamin K, potassium, folate, manganese, phosphorous, magnesium, vitamin E and zinc. So you can tell its a healthy little orange thing to eat!

Potatoes are often undervalued... we eat them so often that we do not even think about how good they are for our health! Potatoes are a very good source of vitamin B6 and a good source of potassium, copper, vitamin C, manganese, phosphorus, niacin, dietary fiber, and pantothenic acid. They have actually more vitamin C than many fruits!

Now, imagine how your body will be feasting when you put these three veggies together in one yummy purree :) 

Enjoy!

Lisbon Outfit III

Did I mention how much I love my poncho...?

I think I did but hey, I cannot say it enough. Here I combined my poncho from the German brand Hess Natur (http://www.hessnatur.com) with my cashmere knit dress from the same brand, some dark red tights and my favorite necklace from my friend who is making her own walnut jewellery (check her out on http://www.leamariefranck.com/). Also, I am wearing this scarf from another German all organic brand called Maas - http://maas-natur.de/

I wore this outfit on my last day in Lisbon and this is actually also going to be my last post from Lisbon. I can`t believe that its already three weeks since I am back in Germany and that its already a month since Christmas! This first month of the year went so fast - once again. But it started off really good so I am not going to complain. I enjoyed my week in Portugal, I enjoyed my week with my cousins in northern Germany (where I went last week) and I enjoyed spending some good time at home with my husband, slowly preparing the apartment for our baby :)

Have a wonderful week everyone! The last week of the first month of the year 2015 - make it a special one :) 

Lisbon Outfit II

Here comes another outfit post from Lisbon...

... I am wearing a maternity blouse which I got from my husbands sister. I still prefer to wear normal shorts and tops in just a slightly bigger size than to wear these maternity blouses which somehow all look so huge to me. I feel a little like an old housewife wearing maternity shirts and this is not really something I can refer to ;) 
Anyway, this blouse is still okay so I wore it for a nice walk in the Portuguese sunshine.

How is your week going? I hope you had a good one so far!? I had a really calm and nice week since I am with my cousins and I do not have to work. So I spend my days learning for the new studies I started (I will tell you more about this soon...), looking through pictures and preparing blog posts. I love that! Blogging became so much more fun recently and I begin to like it more and more with every post made and with every picture taken :) 

Thank you all for your support! Blogging would not be the way it is if you were not here with me!

Christmas gift favorites: Part III - Lancome, La vie est belle

Another favorite gift of mine from last Christmas...

...or better my birthday, which is two days before Christmas :) 

I got this perfume from my husband. I actually smelled it on a friend of mine a while ago and since, I loved it. I told my husband but I never thought that he would actually contact the friend of mine to ask which perfume it was that I liked on her. Well, he did! Lucky me :)

I actually always liked slightly more heavy scents, like e.g. Armani Code by Georgio Armani, but somehow this changed recently. Maybe its because of my pregnancy that I began liking lighter and softer scents... anyway, I really love La Vie est belle from Lancome which is light, flowery and with a little bit of vanilla-like smell :)

Also, its a l'eau de parfum which I got, I really do not need much at all to smell good for more than 24 hours. I think I never had a perfume as good as this one, which does not stop smelling good for more than a day. 

Whats your favorite perfume? I would love to know! 

Pregnancy Must Haves - Lisbon Edition

Here is a second one from my pregnancy must haves series...

... now that my belly is getting bigger, I have to get even more creative when it comes to choose what to wear. There are few things I can totally recommend (which work of course also fine when you are not pregnant :))

1. Cardigans and Ponchos! They are so comfy and so easy to wear above a maternity top or shirt (or even above every other shirt which still fits you well). I am wearing more cardigans this Winter than I ever did before :) 

2. Maternity Jeans! If you do not want to wear leggings and tights during the entire pregnancy you should two pair of maternity jeans! They are comfy, they look good with everything and you can get them cheap if you buy them second hand :) 

3. Long tops/shirts! You do not have to buy maternity tops and shirts, because most pieces from the normal collection do also fit - in case they are long enough. You dont want your belly to be cold but with a long shirt you will easily be able to cover it. I just wear my longsleeves and tops from before pregnancy now and they fit completely fine!

Do you agree with these must haves? Or do you have anything else to recommend?

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and I wish you all the best for the week ahead!!!

Around Belem, Lisbon

 Today I want to take you to Belem...

...Belem ist a little outside of the old town of Lisbon, yet its still part of the city. Its know for its monastery which was actually build in 1495! Can you believe that? Anyway, the monastery is a nice thing to visit when in Belem, but there is actually so much more to see... and to eat!

I loved to just wander around Belem and to look at the cute houses and the tangerine trees. Of course we also went for a walk along the river, had a look at the Belem tower and the huge monument on the river side. The monument actually celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries. 

Anyway, we also had a coffee, enjoying the sun and giving me and my belly a break from walking :) 

And now to the most important of what you can find in Belem... 

Pasteis de Belem! 

There is this sweet little dish in Portugal which is called Pasteis de Nata and its a vanilla pudding cake. Its great! And it actually comes from Belem! So in Belem you can visit the place where the most traditional and the BEST pasteis de nata are made  - and you can eat them! Of course we had to do this! There are 400 seats in the place and they were all taken! Everyone comes here to have this small cake... and well, its totally worth it! 

Now, this about Belem :)

I hope you had a great week! I had a busy one, which was good enough though. A lot of appointments, including my first pregnancy yoga class which was really nice! But then also doctors appointments and some complicated, annoying bureaucratic appointments I had to go through. Now I am looking forward to the weekend! 

Have a great one!

Christmas gift favorites: Part II - The Trip Book

Here is a second one from Christmas gift favorites series...

...today I want to show you the TripBook. This is a really fun and nice idea for everyone who likes to travel! 

Inside the TripBook there are actually several small notebooks, two in which you can write notes, like for example if you write a travel diary and then there are several pockets in which you can put all can kind of souvenirs, like maps, tickets, bills or even pictures. There are two sets of pockets in the TripBook, and each one can be taken out from the book to use it seperatly. As you can see, I put for example the ticket for the Oceanario de Lisboa and a map of Sintra (beautiful, magic place around an hour drive from Lisbon) in the pockets. 

What I find really nice is that you are able to carry either the entire book with all your souvenirs, or you just take the small notebook or the pockets to put them into your bag. Its a really nice way of collecting souvenirs, especially when you are rather lazy in making nice albums after your holidays. This is actually what happens to me most often - I collect lots of souvenirs to put them into albums but then I do not make the albums for months and well, after a while I am getting annoyed by the souvenirs laying around and messing up my desk, so I throw them away. Now I can just put them into the TripBook right away :)  

Perfect gift for me, so to say!
How do you like it? Would you use a book like this or do you prefer to make your own albums instead? 

Favorite Winter Salad - Kale salad

Kale salad is my favorite in Winter...

...I like it best with pomegranate and sunflower seeds.

This is my favorite recipe:

You need:

Kale
Pomegranate
Sunflower seeds
Onion
White vinegar
Olive oil 
Salt 
Pepper
Honey/ Agave Syrup 

The quantities really depend on your taste! Like, I love sweet dressings so I like to put lots of honey. My mum loves vinegar so she adds a lot more of it than I would ever do. Just try to your taste :) 

Cut the kale into small pieces and put into a bowl. Cut the onion into really small pieces. Blend them with honey, salt, pepper, olive oil and white vinegar (e.g. white wine vingear) and spread over the salad . 

Note: The salad will have to steep for 5-8 hours! So prepare in advance!

After 5-8 hours roast the sunflower seeds and peel your pomegranate. Then add the two ingredients to your salad and enjoy :)

To make this recipe even more attractive, think of the great health benefits of kale: its full of essential vitamins, like A, C and K as well as minerals like copper, potassium, iron, manganese and phosphorus. Furthermore, the fiber (5 grams in one cup) and sulfur in kale aid with digestion and liver health. Aaaaand Kale has actually more iron than beef! I could continue this list but I think you get the point already ;)

Enjoy, get healthy and let me know how you liked this salad!
Have a happy start into the week everyone!

Lisbon Outfit I

Here we go with a first outfit from Portugal...

.... I was only allowed carry on luggage on my flight to Lisbon and you can probably guess that it was not that easy ;) 

Well, I figuered that even in Winter the best thing to do, when you are only allowed a small luggage is to pack different t-shirts or longsleeves and one big cardigan or poncho. Like that you can wear something different (shirt) every day without carrying lots of big sweaters or dresses.

So what I did when packing, was to bring two pair of maternity jeans and a few longsleeves plus coat and poncho. The shirt I am wearing in here is also a Christmas gift. Its from the German brand Hess Natur (which I already wrote a lot about) which is 100% organic and fair. The shirt is perfect since I will be able to wear it after pregnancy and because of the loose fit I can wear it now too. 

By the way, one of my favorite things to do when on vacation is to sit in a nice coffee place and write postcards. We found a really wonderful little place at the beach of Parede where we spent lots of time. We just sat there, had tea, wrote postcards or just watched the waves (mostly we watched the waves) :) 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Here it is supposed to rain the entire weekend. So my plan is to stay in my PJ for two days straight and not to leave the house. Haha.  Lets see if I can do it ;) 

Sending you lots of love!

Lisbon Part I

Hey there, I am back!

Back from one of my new favorite cities in Europe :) 
I loved Lisbon and we had the most wonderful holiday there! We actually spent most time at the beach and in other small towns around Lisbon, but of course we also explored the city. I will show you some of my impressions, my outfits and other in the coming weeks :) 
Here we go starting with a small walk around Alfama in the historic center of Lisbon. 

What I loved most? Well there are so many things, but one is the great desserts the Portugiese make! Pasteis de Nata, rice pudding... I wasn't vegan at all during this holiday (which I am usually not on holiday, when it comes to try out typical products of the country I visit) and I loved to have my descafeinado with a pasteis de nata almost every day :) 

What I also loved - the fresh fruits! Its mandarin orange season right now and I just loved to see these yummy fruits everywhere on the trees. Of course there are many more things I loved and I want to share, but one by one :) 

I hope you have been doing good... I can't wait to check out all of your New Years posts which I missed! 

All the best for the new year once again!