Weihnachtsmarkt - Berlin!

I apologise for the recent radio silence. I needed a little break away from things after recent events - no one said living in a foreign country was easy! Tims birthday was coming up so I decided to treat us to a little getaway to Berlin, just in time for the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas markets!)
We were there for about 4 days and managed to fit in all the important historic activities and sites! Berlin is a beautiful city, despite everything it has been through. Like every city it has its good spots, and its bad spots, it was a strange sensation to leave the Christmas market after a couple of hours of perusing stalls full of handmade gifts, drinking glühwein and listening to carols to venturing out into the city where there was children begging and people sleeping rough in the freezing temperatures. Maybe Switzerland has spoilt us but I definitely wasn't expecting to see as much as we did. 

obligatory tourist photo! 

On our first day we arrived late afternoon and decided to visit the Berlin Cathedral in the Mitte Borough, there was so much to see inside and you can climb to the base of the dome and walk around  the outside which offers an incredible view of the city.

Father Christmas and Frosty having a little skate together! 

We had an amazing time in Berlin, its important to get away sometimes and soak in new surroundings. We lost ourselves in museums and memorials and spent evenings walking the streets in the freezing temperatures, stopping by a market to warm up with some mulled wine. 

Now I'm back, I feel refreshed and inspired to begin documenting my Christmas preparations here on a miss in swiss! 

Thanks for reading! Yasmin x

Chewy Cookie Update!

A couple of weeks ago I posted a recipe for some super yummy chewy cookies! If you missed out on that post you can view the recipe here! Anyhoo, I tried a different flavour this week and it was AMAZING!! So I thought I would share it with you guys, I followed the recipe exactly, but while the dough was chilling in the fridge I took 100g of grated coconut and toasted it until it was golden brown, and instead of the milk chocolate I used white chocolate chunks. After the dough had been chilled I mixed these ingredients in and baked them up and the result was way too good to keep from you guys!! 

And I must just take a moment to ask ...how adorable is my sleepy fox plate?! What flavours will you try?

Thanks for reading! Yasmin x

Star Garland

I am getting more and more excited for the winter season, you already know that I'm a bit of a Christmas nut and it definitely didn't help that it snowed today but I am starting to sneak up a couple of decorations here and there, I'm not talking full on Christmas tree and stockings but the decorations that aren't specifically 'Christmassy' and you can sort of get away with! 

I visited Landi at the weekend and they have full on Christmas decoration aisles out already! I could resist but to purchase these gorgeous little, glittery stars:

These little guys are only 3.50chf for 12 stars which is a lovely little bargain and it gave me an exciting idea! 

They're made out of some kind of foamy material and they are super easy to push a needle through.. 

Using doubled thread I created a slip knot and pulled it tightly.

I then sewed it onto some brown, rustic looking string, I chose to have my stars tight to the string but you could have them loose and hanging or do them all different lengths! 

I continued to do this with the stars, spacing them approximately 20cm apart. 

After sewing all of my stars I cut some strips of scrap, gingham fabric and simply tied them in between each star.

The result is a super cute, super simple star garland that is Christmassy enough to satisfy my needs (this week!) but also acceptable to be displayed Mid-October!! 

I hope you enjoyed this DIY, I am easing myself back in gently after my wisdom tooth removal and I am VERY excited about creating more seasonal DIYs and blog posts!

Thanks for reading! Yasmin x

Essence Make up Review

You may or may not have read my last make up review (if not, read here!) I was less than impressed with the foundation I bought last time, not only with the quality, but, with the price tag. 

Anyhoo, I was shopping in Manor the other week and I decided to give the the make up section a little browse, not expecting to find anything (which is probably the best circumstances to go shopping under as thats when I always find something!) When a brand called 'essence' caught my eye, I think it was a combination of the bright, candy colours and the sparkly nail polishes that attracted the magpie in me. 

Upon closer inspection I found that not only was every single item completely beautiful but it was also sold at realistic prices! I picked up three everyday, essential items to try, I didn't want to go overboard because I couldn't be entirely sure of the quality and I didn't want another Astor style disappointment! 

The items I chose (pictured above) are:

1. 'All About Matt' oil-free make up in Beige CHF 5.50  (View on Manor Website)

Rating: 10/10 !! This foundation is incredible, I don't have to use any kind of primer or moisturiser underneath, its so soft and gives amazing coverage even if you use a little bit! And it really is long lasting, I put a little bronzer over the top and I don't need to reapply at all during the day! 

2. 'Sun Club' matt bronzing powder in 01 blondes CHF 5.50 (View on Manor Website)

Rating: 10/10! I chose the bronzer for 'blondes' as I'm quite pale and its a really nice shade with very even coverage, it also smells like coconuts so you can't go wrong! 

3. 'Get Big Lashes' volume curl mascara in black CHF 3.75 (View similar on Manor Website)

Rating: 8/10. It wasn't the best mascara I'd ever tried (my favourite will always be 'they're real' by Benefit) But I do still use it every day, I couldn't find my version on the Manor website but if you look at the range they do a number of different mascaras so maybe there is one that would suit me more as I prefer a slightly more dramatic look. 

I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and range of the essence products, they are also 100% AGAINST animal testing so they are a huge win my books, I couldn't recommend them highly enough. 

I always prefer to look for lower cost versions of my everyday products, not only because I would definitely rather buy a 3.75 franc mascara and still have money left for a book or some fabric that spend 10 times that on a Clinique or Estee Lauder when the quality is very similar. Although, the expat struggle is real when trying to find an equivalent to your essentials that its very easy to see those familiar names and fall into the designer trap! 

I can't wait until my next shopping trip, I'm definitely going to purchase some of their glitter polishes! You can view a full range of the essence products on their website here, or use their store finder to find a distributor near you!

Thank you for reading! Yasmin x

Chewy Cookie Recipe

I've always said that one of the things I miss most about England is the food, don't get me wrong, the food here is amazing and we certainly eat a lot healthier but when you get a craving for a donut or something you can pretty much get it 24/7, in Switzerland however, you either have to get that craving within store opening times or make it yourself! 
One thing that I LOVE that I have seen here are 'american style' chewy cookies, I'm not much of a baker (I'm all about the savoury carbs) but I decided to give these a go! 

This recipe makes a whole load of cookies, I forgot to count but I would say approx 25 depending on your portion sizes! 

Ingredients:
170g Butter (Softened) 
150g Brown Sugar
50g Regular Granulated Sugar
1 Egg
1 Sachet Vanilla Sugar (Dr Oetker)
250g  All Purpose Flour
2 Tsp Maizena (Cornflour)
1 Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda 
1/2 Tsp Salt
100g Milk Chocolate (I used a bar and cut into chunks)

Method:

1. Start by beating the Butter until creamy, you can use a mixer but I just used a wooden spoon (burning off some calories before gorging on cookies!)
Then, add the Brown and the White Sugar and beat them together, the desired texture is 'fluffy'.

2. Then, mix the egg in, it'll be a lot easier to mix with the moisture from the Egg, when fully mixed, add the sachet of Vanilla Sugar and keep on stirring!

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the Flour, Bicarbonate of Soda, Maizena and salt, then you can slowly add this mixture to the 'wet mixture', I suggest adding a small amount and mixing it in then repeating, as this cookie dough will become very thick and you can everything to be throughly mixed together. 

4. Now, you need to put some foil over the dough and pop it in the fridge for about an hour, this is very important! Whilst you wait for the dough to chill, you can clean up the existing mess and also chop the chocolate into chunks!

5. After an hour, preheat the oven to 180 Celsius. Line a baking tray with some greaseproof paper (Note: the tray always has to be room temperature, the cookies will not be nice and chewy if you place them on a hot tray!)

6. Mix the chocolate into the cookie dough, the dough should be quite hard at this point. 

7. When the dough is ready, rough the doll into individual balls, about the size of a 5franc piece! Place the balls on the tray (they will flatten down in the oven) and Cook for about 9-11 minutes until they are ever so slightly golden around the edges.

8. Allow to cool down and enjoy! 

These cookies will keep for a couple of days in an airtight container but, they are always better fresh! Half the ingredients if you want a smaller batch you could even split the dough and freeze half of it/keep it in the fridge!

I hope you enjoy making this recipe! Let me know if you tried any other fun flavours!

Thanks for reading! Yasmin x

Adventures with Inkodye Part 1

I got a stash of Inkodye products from Bastelprofi and have been dying to try them out, for those of you that aren't familiar with Inkodye, its a sun activated fabric dye made by a company called Lumi, and its basically the coolest thing ever! To buy the supplies here in Switzerland, click here! 

So anyway, I had this stash and I just happened to have one of those extremely rare, entirely free days so I thought I'd crack it out! In the photo above is shown the contents in the 'Sunfold' printing kit, which is the dye in two colours (red and blue) and the detergent. It also includes rubber gloves and some instructions, with this kit you can soak fabric in the dye and either twist it using the patterns inside the box for different tie-dye effects or lay it out and place objects on top of it such as safety pins etc. The dye is light activated and therefore will only dye the fabric that is exposed to the light!

Also shown (and sold separately) is a roller, (which screws onto the top of the ink bottles) and some Inkofilm, on which you print negatives for a photo effect on your fabric.

So today I'm going to focus on the Inkofilm and preparing the negatives. This is a really cool and inexpensive way of producing customised Tshirts and other textile products without getting them printed professionally or buying in a load of screen printing equipment.

I decided to use a photograph of Tim & I in Mongolia for my textile print, so, I took it into photoshop to edit it. 

You basically have to turn the image into a negative (like in photography) so I changed it to B&W, changed the contrasts and levels etc and inverted it. Lumi also provide a step by step guide on their website here and provide an app to download to change your photo into a negative in case you don't have any software available to you.

When it comes to the printing stage, you need to create some custom settings, for example, the Inkofilm is 216mmx216mm, you will also need to make sure it is on the highest quality print setting and that you either select your output as 'Transparency paper' or 'Photo paper'.

Once thats out of the way, take a sheet of the Inkofilm out of the packet. You will notice that one side is slightly tacky and the other side is smooth, you will be printing on the tacky side as it absorbs the black ink. 

Then, take a breath, cross your fingers and press print! 

Lumi suggest printing two negatives and layering them to strengthen your negative, if the black areas on your negative are not dense enough, the light will penetrate the dye below and your image will not develop correctly! 

So this was part 1 of the Inkodye tutorial, it was quite a long process so I'm trying to break it up to make it easier for you guys, (and also easier for me to explain!)

Check back soon for part 2 where I will be using the dye and (hopefully) developing my photograph! 

Thanks for reading! Yasmin x

DIY Succulent & Crystal Garden!

I am so excited to share this with you! I found this great circular vase while I was in the UK and I knew immediately what I was going to do with it! 

This DIY would work with any kind of pot or vase, and any kind of material, but for this I wanted the glass as I like the thought of these plants and crystals being inside their own little world!

Next thing is the stones, these are for the top of the garden but also the bottom and the sides, especially if you are using a glass vase as its a lot more attractive than soil! I went down to the lake and spend ages picking out the stones I liked! 

I started by building a small wall around the sides of the vase and placed in the soil in the middle, this means that when you view the garden from the side, you see all the pretty stones and not the gross soil! 

After building up a good foundation, I planted my two little guys, they are too cute! After planting them I continued to build up the soil and stones around them to give them support and to give myself a flat area at the top.

The crystals I chose for the top were an amethyst cluster, a piece of raw quartz and a piece of green and purple fluorite, I chose colours that would compliment the tones of the plants.

And Ta-Dah! I am so obsessed with my little garden, I keep catching myself staring at it! This is the perfect DIY if you, like me, live in an apartment or if you, like me, keep killing plants and need to have ones that require little to no watering!!
What kind of plants do you like to have around the house?

Thanks for reading! Yasmin x