Ramdom facts about Sophie

Hi everyone!

I decided to change Sophies Friday to Random facts about Sophie. Like that, I can also post them at any other day during the week whenever I feel like it. Due to events out of my control - well, almost... - I wasn't able to post yesterday, so there they are on Saturday under their new name.

Well, let's start.

I have settled in my new flat, like it very much and it feels like I have been living here for ages. Gave back the keys to my old flat this week and not felt sad or so. There are still some things to be done in the new flat, but for the moment it is ok and I'll take my time find the missing pieces of furniture and decoration.

My cat managed to escape from the balcony yesterday. That was the thing that kept me off blogging... Suddenly he was gone and I found him sitting downstairs, scared to death. Somehow he managed to slip out of the catnet and jumped.... Took me ages to get him back inside but I guess he wasn't too sad that his adventure in the wildernes was over.

Due to the hot weather I'm only eating cold things. I guess I haven't used the hob in my flat for more than five times in the last three weeks. And four of these times were just cooking pasta or rice for a salad. But the oven is in use quite often and I'm baking like crazy.

After almost three months without a single book I'm reading like crazy since the beginning of July. The next book on my reading list is My Policeman by Bethan Roberts. The book was featured in a book review in the newspaper we have in our office. One of my colleagues called me and told me that this is THE book for me as it is set in Brighton.

While on holiday I bought a jar full of buttons in various colours and can't wait  to do some cute-as-a-button projects with them.

Whenever the weather is hot and sunny for some days I long for a rainy day or two.

Sunday again

*film* Anonymous. Some bits and pieces from Miranda.

*book* Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovich. The Novel in the Viola - Natasha Solomons

*song* I can't decide - Scissor Sisters

*craft* Cross Stitch which I messed up.

*food* A lot ice. Vegetable with balsamico. Potato salad. Chocolate. Pizza. Sushi.

*drink* A lot beer. Berry and Hibiscus refresca.

*done* Enjoyed my new flat. Finished cleaning the old one - luckily my parents did the most of it without my help -, spent a nice evening with my bestie. Read like crazy. Suffered under the heat.

*met* My parents. My bestie. Some of my knitting friends.

*bought* A lipstick which I'm going to bin again.
*thought* How great it is that it is now raining after two incredibly hot days.  

 

Sophies week

*film* Youtube videos from Sho Ko. UK Border Forces.

*book* actually I should remove this categorie....

*song* More Ewan MacColl songs. Once again...

*craft* Birthday card for my Mum

*food* Sandwiches. Meat from the bbq and nice salad. Cheese cake. Ice. Tomato-mozarella salad with peppermint instead of basil. Maltersers.

*drink* The best white wine ever, had quite a lot of it...

*done* Packed. Moved furniture. Met friends. Went to a garden party at my parent's place. Climbed over moving boxes.

*met* friends. The four months old grandson of my Mums best friend. Pretty much all of my parents neigbours.

*bought* My favorite soap. It is a limited edition so I had to stock up.
*thought* That I hate moving!

Eton Mess Cake

Lately I couldn't make up my mind whether I should bake a strawberry cake or make Eton Mess. So I decided to combine these two things.

For a 26 cm round "springform" baking pan

160 g self-raising flour

80 g sugar

80 g soft butter

some lemon zest

750 g strawberries

200 ml cream

50 g meringue

sugar

Preheat the oven. Mix flour, sugar, butter and lemon zest as if you were making crumble. Grease the baking pan and press the dough into it. Bake for 10-15 minutes on 180°. Allow to cool.
Whip cream, cut berries (but put some nice ones aside) and mix into the cream. Season with sugar to taste and then crumble in the meringue. Fill into the baking form and allow to cool in the fridge for 2-3 hours. 
Carefully transfer from the baking pan to a plate and decorate with the remaining berries.

Enjoy!

We cut the cake in 6 pieces and each had two of them... ;-) But it was worth it!

Welcome-door-sign

Well well... Here I am again... Moving is such a nightmare, I really hate it and there is still no end in sight as it'll still take roughly a month till I'll be settled in my new flat. In the meantime I'll move in with my parents for some weeks with the catties and will also go on holiday to my beloved Brighton. So at least something to look forward to in this messy time.

A while ago I did the first DIY for my new flat. A sign to hang outside my door. I really love buntings, they're so typical British and so I decided to do a bunting-themed welcome sign. It took me quite a while to find a suitable picture for the background as I wanted a garden picture, preferably one from a real English garden. So I ended up with one from the walled garden at Preston Park in Brighton. Well, maybe I'll take a better picture while in England this time.
The actual plan was to just write "welcome" on it, but then I decided to go for the German version, "Herzlich willkommen" which is a cordial welcome ;-)

What you'll need:
A picture frame, a background picture in matching size, coloured crafting paper, yarn
Tools: Scissors, cellotape, ruler, pencil, black pen
Optional: your favourite drink - I had white wine spritzer... Naughty me! - and good music

First you'll need to decide what you want to write on the buntings and consequently figure out how many of them you'll need and if you want to hang them in one or two rows. According to the number of buntings par row and the size of your frame, define the size of the buntings. Mine are 2 cm wide and 3 long. Cut the buntings out of coloured paper and write the letters on them with your black - or any other colour - pen. Cut one - or two, depending on how many rows you want - piece of yarn to be about 1.5 of the size of the frame. Use cellotape to add the buntings to the yarn. I cut a 6 cm piece of tape, covered the front of my buntings, then folded the tape over the top of the bunting, fixed the yarn as I went and covered the back. Cut off any excess tape.
Print a picture to match your frame or use a picture from a magazine or something likely. Add the yarn with the buntings to the picture, let the yarn hang down a bit in the middle. If it is the way you like it, fix it at the back of the picture with cellotape, cut off excess yarn and frame the picture.

There you go. Quick and easy and with material you'll most likely have at home anyway.

PS: Please excuse the strange angle of the picture. As you might know, taking pictures of something behind glass can be quite tricky, so I had to do it slightly from the side to avoid reflexions.

Sophies week

There it goes, my plan to post every second day or so and blabla....

This week was so crazy. Monday and Tuesday I was so tired that I basically came home from work, had dinner and went to bed. Wednesday I started packing for my moving. When I wanted to go to bed shortly before eleven, I noticed that my cat wasn't well so we ended up going to the vet at 11 pm! Which led to me being in bed by two in the morning.... Thurday evening was filled with some office stuff and gone in no time and don't ask me where the weekend went... Packed a lot, had a lay in yesterday, met friends this morning, had a hapnap and and and.

And so there we are on Sunday evening... Time for my little week-retroperspective.

*film* "Die Trapp Familie"

*book* A childrens book about womens rights ;-)

*song* Roy Orbison "Penny Arcade". Amy MacDonalds.

*craft* "A summery cross stitch

*food* Ice.Ice. More ice. Muffin. Sushi. Potato salad. Cheese.

*drink* Cider. Apfelschorle. Coffee

*done* Packed. Met friends for some crafting. Had too many lay ins and early nights.

*met* Friends. My parents.

*bought* Giftwrapping paper.
*thought* That I underestimated moving.

Sophies week

*film* Youtube videos

*book* none....Am no big reader at the moment

*song* More Ewan MacColl songs

*craft* "Welcome"-picture for my new flat

*food* Ice. Risotto. Cheese and bacon burger with fries. Mouse au chocolat. Brie.

*drink* Red wine. White wine spritzer. Apple cider from IKEA.

*done* Been incredibly lazy. Spent an evening with two friends, knitting. Re-started knitting my scarf. Spent an evening with friends on Friday. Cuddled with my cats. Worked for my side job.

*met* friends. My sister.

*bought* Toys for the catties.
*thought* That it is only 4 weeks till I'm moving. So time to start doing something.

 Having fun with my sisters cat

 Summer for half a day

 Pret-a-manger stuff my sister brought me from the states

 Strawberries cake. Yummy!

My cat relaxing