Archives for January 2011

On sweet, heart-shaped rewards

January 31, 2011 filed under: food, photography, weekend

I ran my usual errands on Friday and then I pretty much stayed in for the rest of the weekend and took care of some important paperwork. I really had been procrastinating and finally sat myself down and got it done (or almost done).

I spent all Saturday in front of the computer with just minimal distraction from Twitter and the TV (movie marathon! I think I watched “The Proposal” 2,5x and “Knocked up” 3x total. Don’t judge!)

Yesterday I rewarded myself with some homemade German (heart-shaped) waffles. I bought the heart-shaped waffle iron before Christmas because it’s somewhat of a family tradition to make waffles (with hot cherries and whipped cream) some time before the holidays. Then, I never got around to making some before I left for Germany. Since I missed out on the German Christmas Markets as well, I didn’t even get to eat some waffles there.

But today, TODAY was the day!

German waffles are generally thinner than American waffles and don’t use any baking powder. There are a little denser and sweeter than the American counterpart.

I didn’t go through the trouble to heat up cherries and make whipped cream today. Instead, I made a fresh pot of coffee and had the waffles plain with some powdered sugar on top. They were delicious!!

Did you treat yourself to something special this weekend?

Happy Monday!

J is for Journal

January 29, 2011 filed under: photography

The alphabet project is a 26 week adventure in photography!
Wanna play along? Check out Ashley‘s blog and join the Flickr Group!

I am the kind of woman…

January 27, 2011 filed under: about me, I am the kind of woman

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I’m the kind of woman who will always, always give you the benefit of the doubt, often one too many times. I always believe in the best in people and go to great length to try and prove it.

I am the kind of woman who almost always prefers a night in over a night out. I value meaningful conversations over coffee more than getting drunk at a bar.

I am the kind of woman who likes to work with her hands. May it be assembling furniture from IKEA or being crafty with paper or yarn. Everything that can be done with my hands and results in a finished product makes me soothingly happy.

I am the kind of woman who likes a little bit of girly stuff but who’s perfectly fine hanging out with the boys. I used to have a lot of guy friends when I was younger and I valued their no-drama friendships. I have lovely girlfriends, too, but usually big crowds of girls freak me out a bit.

I am the kind of woman who thinks that every friendship is unique and needs to be nurtured and tended to. Once you become my friend, you will find it very hard to get rid off me again. I am loyal to a fault and will always work on keeping the relationship going.

I am the kind of woman who believes that problems can only be solved if both involved parties are open and honest with each other. Relationships only flourish when there are no misunderstandings and false assumptions messing with it.

I am the kind of woman who prefers a shower over a bath 99% of the time. Every now and then, I crave a hot bath to unwind and relax, but most of the time I am too busy doing other things to take the time for a long bath.

I am the kind of woman who would like to preserve every precious moment of her life in a picture. Sometimes I wish I could put the camera down for a second and just enjoy the moment, but since pictures usually help jump-start my memory, I take my camera everywhere I go.

{inspired by this post by my lovely friend Mandy}

I’ll take 5 minutes…

January 25, 2011 filed under: about me, lists!, this and that

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In the last couple of weeks, I’ve felt like a huge procrastinator.
I am going to cut me some slack right here, because after all I’ve been semi-sick for the last 8 days (sick enough to feel crappy and exhausted, but not sick enough to stay at home and really take some time to recuperate), but remember, I am an adult and responsibilities don’t go away just because I am sick.

I feel like I am literally behind on everything. The apartment is a mess. The kitchen floor needs to be mopped bad, the apartment has to be vacuumed (hello dust-bunnies!), there are papers to be filed and claims to be submitted (remember the time when I got stuck in London?), I have some letters to reply to and birthday cards to send out. If I owe you an email – please be patient, I’ll get to it.

As you might now, I am a list maker. So, it’s not like I don’t have all these things written down. Having a list usually makes me stick to my list, but as of late, it’s not working. What good does a list do, if I don’t check things off that list?

In my defense, I managed to go grocery shopping and do the laundry last weekend. (The bare minimum will always get done!) I even printed out claim forms and receipts and sorted some papers, but most of the time I found myself curled up on the couch under a big warm blanket, that I’d have gladly just pulled over my head for the rest of the day, just thinking how much I had to do, but unable to get anything done. The silver lining: I used the time (that I don’t have) to watch some mindless TV (I think, three chick flicks total) and that was lovely and relaxing (maybe just what I needed?).

I think, it might be what we call “Frühjahrsmüdigkeit” (spring time lethargy) in German. The only problem with my theory is: it’s not even spring yet!

How do you motivate yourself when you’re not motivated?

I decided that I’ll take 5 minutes tonight …

to pick up five things and put them where they belong.
to empty the bathroom garbage bin.
to sweep the kitchen.
answer three pressing emails.
throw out three old items from the refrigerator.

I know these are only little things (that aren’t even all on my list), but it’s a start and I know it’ll make me feel better.

Which 5 things could you take care of when you get home tonight?

I is for iPod

January 22, 2011 filed under: photography

The alphabet project is a 26 week adventure in photography!
Wanna play along? Check out Ashley‘s blog and join the Flickr Group!

Things I love Thursday

January 20, 2011 filed under: love, TILT

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This week I am loving…

… the start of the countdown for my parents’ visit this summer. My Dad emailed me the confirmation for their flight reservations and I’m thrilled that they’re going to be here in 185 days!

… the fact that the iPhone is coming to Verizon. Oh yes! I’ve been waiting for this so badly. I am not sure though if I am going to upgrade to the iPhone 4 next month or wait for the iPhone 5 (which is supposedly going to be out in June?) – any thoughts?

… early evening naps on the couch.

… all of my 40 followers. Amazing! Some of you have never commented, so feel free to pop in and say “Hi”. But regardless if you do, thanks for reading!

… the interaction with some of my lovely blog readers! It’s been great to exchange emails and to connect and communicate with you off-blog.

… coming home after work to find a fully cooked dinner on the table. (Somebody please tell me, who is this guy in my kitchen?)

… the return of Bill Maher’s “Real time” on HBO. I really love the show and think Bill Maher is an incredible talk show host. It’s my favorite Friday evening entertainment!

… Family guy marathons with J.

… a nice back scratch before bedtime.

… the fact that I scored a $20-Amazon gift certificate for $10 on LivingSocial.com yesterday! Hooray!

… getting things done. You know, like finishing paperwork, paying bills, making necessary phone calls. I just like to stay on top of things.

What are you loving this week?

What makes you come back?

January 19, 2011 filed under: blog stuff

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If you’re anything like me, then one of you’re favorite things to do is to explore new blogs and constantly add more URLs to your Google Reader.

The month of November and NaBloPoMo always encourage me to browse new blogs, although, who am I kidding? I am not just checking out new blogs in November. This is like an ongoing problem for me. I’ve noticed, once again though, how sometimes certain things about a blog design completely turn me off from reading any further. Here are some of my blog pet peeves.

One thing that can really turn me off on a blog are busy backgrounds, screaming colors, anything that blinks, and background music. Those are four big “no-no’s” on my list. Unless the title of your most recent post really catches my attention (and come on, if we’re honest, how many post titles are really that captivating to distract from a crappy layout?), I’ll most like not even bother to read any further. I love blogs that have a scheme of harmonizing colors that are carefully used to embellish the blog content. It makes a visit that much more enjoyable.

I really have a hard time dealing with very tiny or very big font sizes. Usually everything between 8-12px is acceptable. Everything smaller or bigger than that is exhausting, IMHO.

It’s also very annoying if the blog post has poor formatting, e.g. no paragraphs (one big block of text without any line/paragraph breaks), embeds that are bleeding over into the sidebar (re-size!) , or varying fonts and font sizes (that is usually an issue when text is imported from Notepad or Word).

Common sense would tell you that proper grammar and spelling should be a given in a blog post, but it’s not always the case. I am sure everybody’s guilty of the occasional typo, but it should be part of everyone’s blogging routine to run spell check before you hit the “publish” button.

Related to that is my issue with very wide content columns , even worse when it’s not a fixed width, but spans across your browser window. I find it really exhausting to read text that goes across my whole computer screen. Try to keep the width to a manageable width like 500-600px or so. (Everything narrower than 500px looks “squished”.)

I am also not a fan of very large header images. While I agree that a header can really give your blog personality and is a sort of “blog branding”, it is really annoying, if the whole screen is covered up by the header and I can’t even see the title of your most recent post. Make your content more easily accessible by keeping your header image to 1/3 of a regular screen size (15”).

I usually like to know who I am dealing with, so a picture and a short description about you in the sidebar scores major plus points in my book. It gives me an idea of who you are and what your blog is all about.

If I have a hard time finding your about page and contact information, it’s very unlikely that I will spend hours and hours trying to learn more about you. Make sure you have a clearly structured menu bar (yes, yes, I need one…) and easy ways to contact you via email or other social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

What makes you come back to a blog
(besides the content, obviously)?

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Disclaimer: Please don’t take any of the above pet peeves personally, even if you have done one or more. This is merely a list of things that I personally find – or don’t find – appealing when I visit a blog. It does not mean that I don’t like you personally or that I hate your blog. Nobody is perfect, and neither am I ;) I am constantly trying to improve my own blog design.

On family time

January 17, 2011 filed under: family, Germany, good times, holidays, home, my so-called life, photography

Writing about the post-Christmas part of the time with my family has proven to be unexpectedly hard for several reasons;

a) I didn’t really do that much while I was in Germany this time, so I don’t have any pretty photos of places that I visited or stories of the get-togethers with all the friends that I saw didn’t see,

b) I am still finding myself in a little bit of a state of homesickness, so just looking through the pictures that I did take on my trip makes my heart incredibly ache-y, and

c) I don’t want to bore you to death by swooning over my niece and my nephew; BUT I am afraid, this is all – or mostly – what you will get today.

I hate to turn this blog temporarily into a “Mommy blog”, when I am not even the Mommy!, and I understand that you can only handle so many pictures of cute babies/toddlers that you don’t even know, but I promise you’ll only have to endure this today and then won’t hear a word about kids from me until either my next visit home (which won’t be for a while), or until my sister sends me more cute pictures, whichever comes first (possible the later!).

But tell me honestly, how could you not miss those cute little faces?

We also spent some time with my cousin and my other godchild Luca during my visit. He’s 4 years old already and it so hard to believe that not too long ago he was a helpless, tiny baby. He’s a very sweet and kind little guy and it was wonderful to see him play and interact with Greta.

Here’s my Mom. She’s a saint. When I am back home, she makes me feel like her little girl again (but in a good way!). She puts my favorite sheets on my bed before my arrival, she cooks all the food that I crave while I am there, she goes shopping with me and insists on paying for my drug store and grocery purchases (the stuff that I brought back to the US), and she really made sure that I felt like I was on vacation.

Tom is such a relaxed and laid-back baby. It’s pretty amazing to see him so happy and smiley all the time. He barely fusses around (only if he’s a) hungry or b) uncomfortable) and he’s such a good sleeper. You can just put him down, he’ll turn his head to the side and sleep. Every Mommy’s dream child :)

Greta makes up for Tom’s quiet nature. She’s always on the go, never sits still. It’s amazing how much energy she has. Her brain is like a little sponge. She absorbs every single words that has been spoken around her and throws it back at you (in proper context, I’d like to add) when you least expect it. For only 26 months, that’s pretty amazing!

For good measure, I am throwing in a picture of my dear great-aunt (or, as I’d like to call her, our “acting grandma”, because she has been our surrogate grandma ever since our real grandma died when my sister and I were six).
I tried to spend as much time as possible with her as well while I was there, because after all, she 88 years old and you’ll never know how much longer we’ll have her with us. She’s the sweetest little old lady and I love her so dearly (and she’d be completely terrified if she knew that her photo was on the Internet, so it’s probably a good thing that she doesn’t have a computer. Promise me, you won’t tell her.)

My Dad and Greta are so, so cute together. When I see them, I always wonder what it was actually like to be around my Dad when my sister and I were Greta’s age. My Dad was/is such an awesome Dad!

And don’t you just want to grab and cuddle this little guy?

We spent a quiet, but fun New Year’s Eve at my parents’ house with my sister, her husband and the kids. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. We made a fabulous feast on a raclette and hot stone grill and sat, ate and chatted for hours. Then we went outside to enjoy the fireworks and exchange New Year’s wishes with our neighbors!

My sister and her husband. I love them both to pieces. I wish we lived closer.

On my last day, we went for a walk in the snow. It was a beautiful sunny day and Greta had so much fun outside!

The best part of my trip?

How normal it felt for me to be back home and how normal it felt for the kids to have me around. Granted, Tom is still a little too young to remember my visit from May, but Greta clearly starts making connections and remembering things.

I love how my sister includes me in Greta’s and Tom’s daily life (she put a picture of me right next to the dressing table, which she points at every morning when they wake up and every evening before she puts them to bed) and Greta talks with me on the phone and over the Internet.

The hardest part this time?

Saying goodbye.

Don’t let this last picture at the airport fool you. We were all pretty much trying to hold it together. Goodbyes are awful every time, but this time it was especially hard, because our time together was substantially cut short and I wasn’t really ready to go back. Usually my sister is the first one to start crying at the airport, but the fact that it was me this time should tell you something.

Kudos to you, if you made it all the way down here!

H is for hot

January 15, 2011 filed under: photography

The alphabet project is a 26 week adventure in photography!
Wanna play along? Check out Ashley‘s blog and join the Flickr Group!

My Christmas

January 9, 2011 filed under: family, food, Germany, holidays, photography

Everything was a little bit smaller (the tree), quieter and less extravagant this Christmas.

It all started out with a (new) thick white blanket of snow that had been spread over my hometown over night.

My Dad and I had to shovel snow on the morning of Christmas Eve.

Two days earlier, I wasn’t even sure if I’d be home with my family for Christmas Eve, but the fact that everything turned out ok, that I actually was with them, can only be described as the best Christmas present ever.

Everything was a little different this year.

My Granddad wasn’t with us for Christmas for the first time, the snow almost prevented us from bringing my great-aunt over to our house. My parents, my sister, her husband and the kids all had been sick the whole week before and it wasn’t clear if we would be able to all get together for Christmas Eve, let alone the uncertainty if I was going to make it or not.

Due to my late arrival, I didn’t get the chance to make the “menu cards” that I traditionally make for our Christmas dinner (although, I’d like to mention that I did get to decorate the tree!) and the dinner itself was only a trimmed-down version of what my parents usually conjure for Christmas Eve.

Ok, granted, the trimmed-down version was still pretty awesome… heh.

Celery cream soup

Beef fillet in Espresso with rosemary potatoes, sauteed scallions, carrots and sugar peas

Baked apple with vanilla sauce and ice-cream

But all that didn’t really matter that much, because the most important thing was that we were all together for the holidays.

It was my parents, my sister, her husband, Greta and Tom, my great-aunt, my aunt, my cousin Basti and me (in case you were wondering, J actually got sick the week before our trip and had to cancel his flight) … and for our standards, this was considered a small group.

It was so special to witness Greta consciously experiencing Christmas for the first time and for me to experience Christmas through the eyes of a child again. Even though I doubt that Greta really understands quite yet what Christmas is all about, she was visibly awestruck and humbled by the lit Christmas tree and the magical atmosphere that surrounds Christmas.

My sister didn’t want Greta to be overwhelmed by too many presents, so she had organized for her to receive one big present from the “Christkind“: a big wooden horse barn and several (toy) horses.

It was amazing to watch her excitement when she unwrapped her present.

Tom, who’s only 9 months old, was relatively unimpressed. He was his cute little self and just kept reaching for the lower-hanging shiny ornaments on the Christmas tree.

There was good food, good conversation, laughter and silent smiles directed at each other. I think deep down inside we all felt how very precious this time together was, and nobody wanted to leave the family gathering prematurely so that we ended up talking until 3 a.m. in the morning.

Even though, my travel experience was frustrating (at best) and I just barely made it home in time for Christmas, it taught me a valuable lesson about what is really important and what from now on I just want to consider as “extra fluff” around the Christmas holidays.