Stopmotion Cook Video

Goodevening!

Today has been a long one because I had to come to The City by train this morning instead of yeasterday because all trains had been cancelled yesterday. When I arrived I had to run to an English class, where I was called "Muffin Maker" by the teacher because I did know how to say "yeast". It was funny, actually.
Then I headed to a meeting where we students had to decide what to do against the senseless education law that is going to pass and that won't allow many people to study and graduate in the future. I won't write much about it because this has to be a happy place, but this is just an incredibly idiotic plan.
I came home, had to arange many things, have a shower. Standard things.

I leave you with this cute video for today.

Juliette

Sunday - Breakfast - Coffee, Muesli and Mandarines

Hello!
This was our fantastic breakfast this morning. No baking involved, but Nutella and biological bread for Roberto, muesli for me, Cinnamon coffee and mandarines. Smells like winter!



I should be in the city now, but all the trains were cancelled, so I am still home. Tomorrow morning I'll have to try again, have 4 hours of classes and then it will already be evening, so I don't know if I'll have time to write anything.

Have a nice Monday!

Juliette

First Snow

(That's the village I live, notice the sea in the background ^^)

Today started with a nice breakfast with Roberto. Then I was checking e-mails and reading some blogs when I saw that on Twitter the half world had snow: the US, Holland, Germany, Budapest and England.
I was a bit perplexed. I live in a place where it always snows before all other places, I live near the Appennines. Nevertheless, there was a lovely sunny shining through the trees.
We decided to go for a hike on the mountains at the end of the valley (Roberto and I are always so active at weekends, if you don't go for a walk, on the bike or do some sport we can get kind of depressed ^^).

Time to get with the car to the place from where we would star walking (5 minutes away from my house) and the sky was already grey and announcing snow. When we begun walking it was snowing!! I was happy and it was so nice, even if we were freezing.(freezing)

Then it stopped and when we came home from the walk it begun snowing again, seriously this time. We had a cup of hot cinnamon coffee and now we are having a nice afternoon at home: cooking soup for dinner, finishing the Christmas cards, reading, and so on.



I hope you have had a cosy - snowy day too!

Juliette

Something in the mail.

Yesterday I came home, at my parents' after three weeks, and there was something waiting for me in the mail. Actually, my mother brought the little package with her when she came picking me up at the station.
The lovely Katja sent me this beautiful handmade hat. I immediately wore it yesterday and today.
Thank you so much Katja =)


I also got some useful crafty thing from my aunt, who lives in Denmark and decided to surprise us with some nice things for Sinterklaas and Christmas.

Today I spent a fantastic morning with my father. I had so much fun, really, buying gifts for Sinterklaas for Roberto and just looking around.
Then I came home and decided to start making Christmas postcard. That was at 1 pm, now it's 18 pm and I am still painting, I love it.



In a few hours Roberto will come and we will enjoy an evening all together watching a movie maybe.
Have a nice weekend!

Juliette

Thursday - Loves

Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans!

Today I had a three hours class and a long trip of five hours in the train to get to my parent's after three weeks in Turin. Therefore I have not much to tell you.

Today I love..

Pretty shops with wonderful colors.


I would love to get a letter like this in the mail with my name on it.



Gingerbread houses, I am totally trying to make one this year.



These words. Totally agree.



Pretty small bags for meaningful gifts.

These things definitely make me smile.
I hope you're having a nice day.

Juliette

100th post!!

Mesdames et messieurs,
Signore e signori,
Ladies and gentlemen,

This is my 100th post!



I have been having different feelings towards this blog. First I loved it, then I hated it, I abandoned it and now it's a sort of notebook I write on everyday. I love when people comment and it's not just a place only I (and my mother) visit every now and then.
I hope that when I'll write my 200th post I will have met more people thanks to it. I love being involved in a crafty-baking world, it allows me to dream and not to abandon the things I love to do besides studying.

I don't know, I haven't anything particular ready, I just realized it's my 100th post.
So, thank you for reading, thank you for commenting if you do and if you don't, please, I love to hear from you!

I having been creating much lately, but I can blame only University, not my love of crafting. I adore it and have many ideas actually.

[4 Stories] - Old Photos

One. See my family when they were young.
This is not really a story, but I love seeing old photos of my family because I can get to "know" them a littl bit better, seeing how they were when they were my age, for example. I can also see what we have got in common and the many differences. It's a bit like a time machine.

Two. Little Red Riding Hood
I have a photo I see every now and then when showing old photos to friends or family of me, the 3 years old me, holding a book with a drawing of Little Red Riding Hood. I had a red woolen jumper and it was as if they had drawn me in that image. The fact is that I exatly remember what I was thinking at that exact moment, and which toys I had around me and so on. Maybe it's one of my first memories which is recalled everytime I see that photograph.

Three. At grandma's .
I see my grandma once every two years, because I live in Italy and she lives in Holland. She loves her family so much. She has 5 children and 10 grandchildren so she has to remember everything about them all! She has many many photographs around her house, of my mum and her siblings when they were young, but also of my cousins and of all their families. I always enjoy looking at them and see how we all have changed during the years.

Four. The history class.
I didn't like history classes, but once the teacher showed us a photograph of a bourgeois family of the 18th century. We compared family portraits of that time with those of this period. Obviously they couldn't take many photographs and they had to hire a photographer and so on (that's not long ago actually, when we had no digital camera). But they studied the composition and their faces and expressions and disposition very attentively. It was of great importance, they had to convey the importance of the man, the respect of the children and so on.
Nowadays we just throw ourself in front of the camera and take as many photos as possible, choosing later which one we liked the most. I actually like how it all works now, even if I like also the fact thet photography was seen as a special event.

Do you want to join? Go and visit this wonderful blog to know how to join.

Juliette

Family

I have learned to love art from my parents and my grandparents.
One of my grandmothers is a teacher of french, enjoys music, sings every seconds of the day and once taught me to knit (I was too little to remember how it worked, I am so sorry for that).
The other grandma has a sort of farm with many animals, loves flowers and makes fantastic (sort of) paintings with them.
My mother draws fantastic portraits, for example while she's calling someone. But she is too afraid of making a real painting of one of them (while I think it would be wonderful). She draws fairies and landscapes and is the best in using watercolours.
My father makes sculptures with all sorts of materials, even cement. He makes more colourful and maybe less feminine things (he made a frog who's in front of our door and welcomes whoever comes for a visit, for example) and decorated our house with al sorts of colours and lights. And when it comes to painting he's more abstract, less realistic, more lines and geometrical figures always with a pinch of fun.
My grandma introduced me to knitting, my other grandma to animals and nature, my mun to drawing and my father to fimo for example. So, actually, they are my main inspiration.

So here you have a few pictures of my parents' creations.

(my mum drawing, actually coping because I asked her to, a wonderful image I found on the Internet | the work finished)

(my father's mushrooms, they are glow in the dark!)

(one of the first drawings I made, a smiling face and many letters, almost all of them drawn the other way round)

(one of my father's paintings, he loves Keith Haring)

(the decorations for Christmas last year, what are we going to see this year?)

(he painted this one last weekend, they sent me a pic of it)

(my mum made this for my grandma, the one who taught me to knit, she loves nature and would love to travel forever, unfortunately she'stoo old now =( )

Yes, this was maybe a bit too sweet and personal, but I love their fantasy, their love for art and their talent.

OH, and can I add that my brother has so so so meny talents, He's a great cook but most of all he's a supertalented musician. He palys guitar as a rockstar and sings beautifully. He also plays drums and bassguitar, he plays almost everything. And I love him.
Juliette

Sunday - Breakfast - Knuffel Cookies

There is one brand of cookies and bread in Italy that always shows the "ideal" family in its ads.
It's so well-known that people often say "They are like the Mulino Bianco family" describing a perfect family.
This brand produces cookies called "Abbracci" (Hugs), chocolate and vanilla cookies that Roberto and I made yesterday evening (the dough) and this morning (baked).
I called them "Knuffels" because it means sweet hugs in Dutch.


This time I had only the problem that I hadn't enough flour (how can that happen in my house, I've always flour everywhere!). So I had to let the dough rest overnights because otherwise it would have been too fluffy to use it.

We ate our Knuffels with a mandarin and a cup of milk. And this time they were even good-looking.


Cacao - Vanilla Cookies - Knuffels
Vanilla dough
250 g flour (8,8 oz)
100 g sugar (3,5 oz)
50 g softened unsalted butter (1,7 oz)
45 g margarine, softened (1,56 oz)
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a sprinkle of salt
3 Tablespoons of cream

Cacao dough
260 g flour (9,1 oz)
120 g sugar (4,2 oz)
40 g margarine, softened (1,4 oz)
60 g softened unsalted butter (2,1 oz)
30 g cacao powder (unsweetened) (1 oz)
40 ml milk (1 cup)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a sprinkle of salt

Vanilla dough
Mix butter, margarine and sugar until a fluffy cream is formed.
Add all the other ingredients, the last will be the flour and the baking powder.

Cacao dough
Same process, different ingredients.
Mix butter, margarine and sugar until a fluffy cream is formed.
Add all the other ingredients, the last will be the flour and the baking powder.

Place parchment paper on a baking pan and pre-heat the oven at 180 °C (350 F)
Take a piece of vanilla dough and make small rolls in the form of half a doughnut (or a half-moon) and place on the sheet parchment paper.
Make ather half-moons with the cacao dough and join them to the vanilla ones (please watch the pictures, I'm not good at explaining it).
Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the vanilla dough gets golden.
Allow to cool on a rack for 10 minutes.



Here you have a nice Sunday breakfast without disasters this time =)

Have a nice day, mine certainly was.

Juliette

Friday - Week Recap

Thank God it's Friday you will say. I'd reather "Thank God I finished another book".

This week it has been raining, and raining, and..raining. Today it didn't rain, and immediately went to the park, it was a lovely weather.
I have to read many many books for the next session of exams. I am attending French, English literature II and German literature II this semester, and this means: read, read , read!!

Here are some pictures from this week.










Have a nice weekend!

Juliette

Thursday - Loves

Thursday is the day of the week I hate the most. I don't hate Mondays.
I don't exceptionally love Sundays, I only dread Thursdays.
I remember one year in High School I had something like two hours of latin and two hours of philosophy and one of maths or so. Every week I thought I wouldn't have survived it.
This semester I have only three hours lesson on thurday, but I don't know, I still don't like it.

This is why I though to show people nice things I find around the Internet around the week.
Everytime I will post 5-10 pictures, songs, videos just to show you (and remember myself) how many cute things there are around.

(source)

These lights create such a great atmosphere.

(source)

Turine Tran's art (I couldn't choose which picture to show you)


A wonderful kitchen

(source)

A bit of romanticism

(source)

This video is so funny! Omnomnomnom!!
Hope you like it. Have a wonderful evening (or day).

=) Smile

Today was pretty much a positive day.
I am trying to see nice things in everything, it's being hard, but if I walk on the road and don't stay permanently with my face down, I have to possibility of catching the smallest wonderful things.
For example I love the woman who works at the "Pasticceria del Borgo" here in the street. She is a nice elderly woman who always wears a big smile. Today I caught her through the shop window picking a chocolate candy with the expression of a little rascal.
Her little shop is magical, the interiors are made of wood and she bakes everything with her husband.



Yesterday evening I was looking outside the window, it was raining and there were small drops on the window. You know when it's dark outside, and there's only one streetlamp shining, and the drops are illuminated by it. I love it. And I though why on earth I am worrying so much about everything. I must calm down, breathe and enjoy life. Period.

Hope you have a nice evening, I have to finish "The Power and the Glory" by G. Greene. And then I have another 8 books to read.

Juliette

Sinterklaas

He comes every year, and this year he will come too. On the 5th of December he will bring us gifts, but that's not the important part. The atmophere which my family has always created, the warmth, the love, everything is just perfect on that evening. And the month passed writing poems and wrapping gifts is totally worth it.


This year unfortunately my parents decided they didn't want to celebrate it anymore. I felt horrible, because it's the one day I love, the one da that I wait for for the whole year, the one day that I feel home and loved like nothing could ever go wrong.
You know when you keep one small thing as if you were a child, because it's comforting, nice, and makes you happy.
But they don't know what to give, what to do, and.. the other families have stopped celebrating it when the children were 12.
Sorry but I don't give a damn about what other families did, didn't you teach me not to give a damn?


Roberto and I decided that this would be our first year celebrating it together. He never celebrated it before and it so difficult to explain the traditions, the feelings to someone who hasn't felt it since he was a child. Fortunately he celebrated Christmas, and the two festivities obvioulsy have someting in common.

When I think of Sinterklaas I think of songs sung at evening before going to bed to put you shoe under the with a carrot for the horse in it.
The day after find sweets instead of the carrots.
Hearing Sinterklaas walking around the house and thinking that he's hearing you sing.
Waiting for that day more and more, being full of hope.
The happiness I felt when I woke up because I was sure I would find something in my shoe.
Unwrapping the gifts not before having read the poem which "he" had written (it seemed he actually did know what I did most time of my life!haha).
Eating Spekulaas from the Netherlands and the Letter of Chocolate.




I have so many memories. I think only good ones. This was the best day in my year, and now I will have to built it anew, recreate it, with someone else. I am pretty sad about it, even if a love celebrating it with Roberto. We are not in "our" home, we haven't got the time to see eachother and decorate the house, I won't put the shoe under the fireplace. But it's going to be special. I am sure.

I am sorry if the images are small, but the first ones are my favourite from a book of my childhood. For the sources click on the image.
Juliette

Ellie Goulding - Your Song (Elthon John cover)

When I saw this video on BlackEiffel I was speechless. I watched the video and listened to the song not moving, almost without breathing. I am listening to Ellie's song "Starry Eyed" a lot lately (this live version) and I love it.
I don't like covers, but this one was overwhelming. I cried. Just a little. ^^

Wish list

In less than a month it will be my birthday. I didn’t have many wishes until someone asked me what I wanted. I’ve been signing on my notebook cute things when I see them in shops and now.. I’ve a long wish list ^^

I’ll show you just some photos I found on the net not to make it all too boring.

1. "A Piece of Cake" by Leila Lindholm. It's called differently here, but I saw it at the bookstore, I looked at the recipes and the photographs and all I could so was smile and long to read and look at every detail of it.

2. Go to Leiden, live the Sinterklaas and/or Christmas atmosphere and feel at home.

3. Gingerman Cookie Cutter, I had this on the list until I met the supercute cookie cutter of Ikea. It's a gingerman with a hat, or better, I see that, I think it actually is a gnome.

4. Colorful or white headphones.

5. All stars, I miss them so much.

6. A big, warm, woolen scarf

7. All sorts of paint, canvases and pencils, and other crafty things

I going to read and et ready for Sinterklaas (our Christmas) which will be on December the 5th, and I will celebrate it for the first time with Roberto, whom I have taught the essentials. I really hope I will be able to get him into the Sinterklaas mood, he has never experienced this magical day before!

Have a great day!

Juliette