Dear Winter...

... where do I begin? We've had some really good times together. Mainly when I was younger. But then I realized that every year I look forward to your arrival less and less. And you have to admit, that you are no longer committed to this relationship too. You used to make more effort before. You used to be exciting, beautiful and white, but lately all this has been missing. I think, that you don't want to be here either. So, although it's not nice of me to tell you this, I want you to leave. It will be better for both of us.

Sincerely,

Me

A little bit of baking

The last couple of weeks have been...challenging. I was feeling tired, uncomfortable, generally not right. The cold and grey days didn't improve my mood either. Even the food didn't taste right. But this week at least my appetite, if nothing else, took a turn for the better :) To celebrate this I decided to bake some coconut bread.To be honest, I am not sure where the idea came from. I wasn't even sure if such kind of cake existed. I had to turn to internet to find some recipe, and I found this. I can confirm that the final product is a real treat for coconut lovers, sweet, moist and full of coconut flavor. Perfect with a cup of coffee while waiting for the cold weather to go away and for spring to finally start. I am so ready for spring - how about you?

Bare neccesities: Bread

Just like some people say they couldn't live without chocolate or meat, I couldn't imagine my diet without carbohydrates, more precisely, without bread. A staple food throughout Europe, it comes in many different shapes and sizes: French baguettes, Italian ciabatta, German rye bread... But for me the real bread is the sourdough loaf with a thick crust and soft, but firm middle, typical for Slovakia, Czech Republic and a handful of other European countries. Bread itself is plain and simple, but it can upgrade so many other kinds of food to a higher level.  What would a bowl of tomato soup be without a slice of fresh bread to eat it with? Or a hot-dog without a bun? What can improve chocolate spread more than a piece of sweet raisin bread? As the  Slovak poet Milan Rufus said in one of his poems: Bread is a reward. 

DIY diary

The year has begun and I've realized that this year I am going to need a diary. I didn't have one last year, or the year before, but it seems that this year will be pretty busy. The choice of diaries in the stationary store was huge, in fact so huge, that I could not decide which one to pick. So, in the end I decided to fish out my DIY box and craft my own. I used a small notice book, some washi tapes to distinguish between months, rubber stamp, so I don't have to write all the dates by hand, and stickers, to mark those special days and occasions.

And here is the final product, wrapped in some pretty fabric. I am happy to report that it is already filling up with some exciting memos and appointments :)

Snow at last

It started snowing this afternoon: at first, the random snowflake fell here and there, just when I was leaving the house, and by the time I reached the train station, the footpaths were sprinkled with a layer of snow. And when I arrived in the town the streets were already completely white.

Now, to those who work in the airline industry, snow mostly means delays, cancellations and trouble getting home. But I am not working this week, so I can really enjoy the first snow of this year, or, in fact, the first real snow of this winter. 

My handmade Christmas

Two weeks till Christmas...did you put up your Christmas decorations yet? We did it last weekend. And we bought a Christmas tree and decorated it too. I approach Christmas in a creative way, so many of my Christmas decorations are self-made. Some of them I made from scratch, like the felt tree decorations, Christmas wreath or the embroidered picture. Other are customized, like the wooden letters which I painted in red and white or the tealight holder which I painted icicles on with an old glittery nail polish. And next weekend I want to bake Christmas cookies. The baking always makes the house smell lovely: of chocolate, coconut, cinnamon and cloves...

Bare necessities V

If there is one thing I can't stand about shopping, it is the plastic bags you get free of charge, or for a few pennies in every supermarket. They look ugly, they break easily, and they are no friend of the environment. And, of course, there is always the question of what to do with them, after you unpack your groceries. Some people re-use them as bin bags, but they are always too small or too big for the bins in our house. So, I used to hoard them until I had too many, and because I didn't know what to do with them, I just gave up and, threw them into the recycling bin. Fabric bags in comparison have many advantages. They are more sturdy, and more suitable for heavy items. You can buy them from stores like Primark for as little as 1 Pound, yet they don't look cheap like the plastic bag. And, if like me, you pick one with long handles you can carry them over you shoulder and keep your hands free. I always carry one with me folded inside my handbag. I just prefer to have as little plastic in my life as possible, and also in my home.  

.