Moving to another Continent with a little “extra”

Hello there,

Yes, it’s me….after what seems an eternity since my last blog update, I thought it was time to talk about all the changes that happened/ will be happening, and how it might influence my “blogging activities” here.

1. We are happy to be expecting our second baby this fall! As some of you who read previous posts may know, we are dealing with endometriosis based infertility when it comes to family planning. This hasn’t changed, and it never will. My husband & I never liked the thought of just one single child for our family, but of course, with the cards we’ve been dealt, it doesn’t come as easy as just “trying for another”. I had to undergo another round of hormonal stimulation (actually 2 rounds) to welcome another little one of our ‘snowflakes’ on board in my tummy via frozen embryo transfer. We couldn’t believe our luck to actually hold another positive pregnancy test in our hands again, but soon that joy was immensely overshadowed by hyperemesis gravidarum. It actually was so severe that I had to be hospitalized and hooked to an IV-drip. However, all that is in the past, since I’m now in my 22nd week of pregnancy and can look forward to the prospect of holding another baby in my arms in a few months. By the way, our daughter will be a big sister to a baby brother 😉
   

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2. As stated in the title, there are more news & changes happening in my/our life. In about 2 weeks – at the beginning of June 2016 – we will move to another country, another continent even. Until now we lived right in the center of Berlin, Germany – a bustling “melting pot” metropole. We don’t own a car since we don’t need one and pretty much everything is a short walk or 2 bus/metro stops away. Berlin is a city that can either make or break you, and it has become a part of my personality, but now there is time for change. My husband (an engineer in the automotive industry) had been offered to work for a subsidiary company of his current engineering company, and his new workplace will be located in the USA, Michigan to be exact. Since the company will be a big help with moving and paying for things like the moving company, health insurance etc, we didn’t think long before jumping at the chance to live this little adventure with as big as a safety net as possible (compared to the way of “quitting and restarting from zero”-workwise). We are positively excited for all the things to come and the big flight without a return ticket happening soon.

Of course, the combination of #1 & #2 result in a special adventure for me personally as I will give birth to my baby boy in another country and don’t even know where exactly, because we can’t go house hunting for a place to live until we’re actually THERE. Only then will I be able to choose an obgyn or birthing place.

I plan to update my blog more regularly in the future, and with these changes coming^^^ my updates will probably center around these two themes a lot. That is the direction I think I want to take in the future. If you are interested – keep checking back here 🙂

Hazelnut-Cinnamon Pumpkin Cake (recipe)

We bought one huge butternut pumpkin and are trying different type of cooking & baking recipes with it. So far we made a gratin, fried pumpkin pieces, pumpkin soup….and today I made a Pumpkin Cake that spreads such a delicious scent through our apartment!! So I decided to share the recipe 🙂

You need (measurement converter if needed ):

• 4 cups of grated pumpkin (I used butternut pumpkin)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of oil (or melted butter if you like)
• 1-2 cups of milk (depending on how fluffy you want your cake to be)
• 1 package of baking powder (=15grams)
• 2-3 table spoons of cinnamon
• 100-150grams of ground hazelnuts (or walnuts or almonds…)

Optional ingredients:

• vanilla sugar
• chocolate for the coating
• things to sprinkle on top of the coating

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1. Mix the flour, sugar, (vanilla sugar), baking powder, cinnamon & ground nuts until it’s all blended well together
2. Add the oil/melted butter & eggs to the mix and give it a good whisk, then add the milk (the more milk, the fluffier the cake, I use a lot) – whisk all the ingredients until they’re blended nicely
3. Stir the grated pumpkin into the bowl and mix until it’s all a smoth (almost creamy) dough
4. Bake in pre-heated oven at 160°C for about 60-70 minutes

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This is how mine looks straight out of the oven

I decided to coat it with a thin layer of dark chocolate, let it cool off and there we go – Enjoy!
(Excuse the crappy picture quality, it was a quick snapshot with my phone before I had to dig in)

The cake is pretty moist, because we like it that way. If I added less milk it would have been a more dry 😉

 

 

Fall Fashion – the simple, comfy kind『blogtober 2014』

Day 16 of blogtober2014 is dedicated to the fashion of this season.

Fall Fashion
I have to admit that I’m not a real fashion-addict, who enjoys posting “Outfit of the day” updates. I don’t go shopping every week, not even every month, but I wear the clothes I buy for years mostly (of course adding something new when I feel like it). It’s not even so much a money issue as it is the fact that I just really like the clothes I buy and then want to wear the pieces for a long time.
This is what I like to wear in autumn. It’s a 3-4 year old photo taken of me in Yamashita Park (Yokohama, Japan). BUT I still wear those same clothes on an autumn day this year. Just a comfy pair of jeans, my well loved dark petrol knitted long-shirt, a jacket and a dark blue scarf. It’s really simple and not “high-fashion” at all, but I rather enjoy the colourful autumn scenery instead of pondering too much over what to wear these days 😉

To add some color, I love to wear handwarmers as autumn  days can get quite chilly sometimes.

I crochet these myself, you can find other creations looking through my handmade category 😉

Of course cardigans are also a big thing during fall season. I have several to just put over a thinner shirt to get that extra bit of cozy comfort. And since I’m a mum, I also crochet a ‘fall fashion cadigan’ for my daughter

You can click here and see my blog post about this cardigan ^^with close up pictures of the details 🙂

My PearApple-Cinnamon-Custard filled Crumble Cake『blogtober 2014』

This 13th day of blogtober 2014 is dedicated to some delicious cake 🙂

Your favourite fall/autumn recipe
Most of the recipes in autumn revolve around pumpkin or sweet potatoe, so I decided to share something different with you – no pumpkin or potatoe needed! It’s one of my favourite cake recipes which I came up with myself one day when in mood for yummy desert that could be done with what I had on hand.

PearApple-Cinnamon-Custard filled Crumble Cake
I will use grams and milliliters for my ingredients but you can easily convert it to your preferred measurments here 😉

For the cake base/crust you need:

•  50-80ml (sunflower or any other) oil
• 75gr sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar (or well, your choice of vanilla sugar extract)
• 150gr flour
• half a sachet of baking powder

For the filling you need:

• 4-5 shredded or grated apples and/or pears (as you like and if you want more or less of)
• 500ml milk
• a bit of sugar
• cinnamon
• 1 bag/sachet of custard powder (or make ‘real proper custard’ following this recipe)

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1. Mix all the ingredients for the cake base/crust to a smooth dough.
2. Take half of the amount and spread it out in a springform pan or a baking tin of your choice. Set the other half aside for the crumbles later on
3. Cook the custard as instructed on the bag/sachet of custard powder or take the still warm ‘real proper custard’ if you made that^^
4. Add your shredded/grated apples and pears, plus a good amount of cinnamon (to your liking)
5. Spread all of it out on your cake base/crust in the baking tin
6. Now take the other half of the dough we made in Step 1. and previously set aside. It should be of such consistency that you can crumble it up in your hand (a bit like damp sand on the beach maybe). Let the crumbles fall onto the  custard filling until it’s almost fully covered.
7. Put it in the pre-heated oven and let it bake at 200°C for about 50mins. After that look and decide for yourself if it needs a bit more baking time. The crumble-top should be golden or very light brown when it’s done.
8. Decorate it with some (couverture) chocolate if you like 🙂

Now……dig in !!!

Halloween IF grumpy cat reappears!『blogtober 2014』

Yesterday we went to the future (kind of), and today it’s throw-back-thursday for blogtober 2014 !

Your best or worst Halloween memory #TBT
Halloween is actually not that big of a thing here in Germany where I live, so I don’t really have specific memories for that special last day of October. I’m also someone who is frightened easily, and get a little heart attack everytime someone comes into the room a little too quiet for me to notice right away. I guess that makes me a bit of a Halloween fail.

BUT…there is one thing I get excited about when it comes to Halloween: PUMPKINS! I do enjoy the “pumpkin season” and love to see carved pumpkins and such. Last year, I took part in the “IF Pumpkin Smackdown 2013″ and actually carved a pumpkin myself for the first time. It was so much fun!
I carved an ‘Infertility Grumpy Cat’-pumpkin and you can see my blog post with pictures of it HERE. A little halloween-throw-back-sneak-peak

I was on my two-week-wait back then after my frozen embryo transfer and it was such a good distraction from worrying and thinking about whether it will lead to a positive pregnancy test. Little did I know that our IVF miracle was actually already getting comfy in my belly and with us for this years Halloween. It’s definitely a memorable Halloween memory of mine.

Fall Bucket List 『blogtober 2014』

It’s day 5 of blogtober 2014 – I’m enjoying atumn so far, it’s a lovely season.

Your fall bucket list
I don’t have one.

Now, that would be a bit too short for a blog entry and I would feel like I’m cheating or something, so let me explain why I don’t have or make a list.
I don’t really like the concept of making a (bucket) list. I make lists for grocery shopping or recipe ingredients, books I’ve read, movies I saw and so on. However, I have never made a (bucket) list for things I plan to do in a certain time span.
To me, making such a bucket list feels like being in a long distance relationship (my husband & I actually were having such a long distance realtionship for the first 3-4 years due to studying in different cities, so I know what I’m talking about 😉 ) You look try to do all the things you’ve planned and imagined for that certain time, and it creates a bit of pressure to accomplish it all – and having to have fun while doing it! Been there, done that, didn’t like how it felt.

With that long distance relationship we knew we were going somewhere with it and “endured” the 3-4 years of ‘fun on weekends’. But I don’t see the point in “enduring” a seasonal bucket list. So I don’t make one. This is just me though, if you enjoy a bucket list, then do have fun with it by all means!

I will try to enjoy autumn as much as possible. And if I have something in mind that I’d like to do, then I will just go ahead and do it 🙂

Getting into the mood『blogtober 2014』

My blog and I, we had a little talk. Together we came to the conclusion that we’re in the mood for a little more action around here. This means I will try and blog a little more, make this blog of mine a little ‘cozier me space’. What better motivation to get a (hopfully) fun blogging-feel going than a blog-challenge, aye ?!

Day 1. If you’d won the lottery you…(see further down in this entry)

Day 2. Dream job when you were little/ what is it now?

Day 3. One thing you can’t live without 

Day 4. Favorite photo you’ve posted on Instagram 

Day 5. Your Fall Bucket List

Day 6. 10 Things you’d tell yourself when you started blogging

Day 7. Best/Worst Vacation

Day 8. Letter to yourself in 10 Years

Day 9. Best or worst Halloween memory #TBT

Day 10. I never thought blogging would…

Day 11. If you were president

Day 12. Best advice you’ve been given

Day 13. Favorite fall recipe

Day 14. Funniest memory from childhood

Day 15. Favorite quote and why

Day 16. Fall fashion

Day 17. I’m an expert at…

Day 18. Share a secret about you

Day 19. What makes you happy

Day 20. Your biggest fear

Day 21. Dream vacation 

Day 22. Your pet peeves

Day 23. Favorite instagram editing apps/ or editing tools for your blog

Day 24. One beauty product you can’t live without

Day 25. Favorite book

Day 26. Who’d play you in a movie

Day 27. A letter to your younger self

Day 28. Things you’re superstitious about

Day 29. Most embarrassing moment

Day 30. Facts about you

Day 31. Halloween costume reveal 

I found this blog challenge here on heleneinbetween.com . Really liking all the prompts and am now excited to start with

Day 1 – ‘If you won the lottery you’d…’

…fix up my grandma’s old shabby house top to bottom. A few of it has been done but my mum’s financial funds are limited. My grandma is very old (over 80) and I’m not sure for how many more years she’ll be around, but if I’d have enough money I’d still try and make her last years as comfortable as possible, so the house would not only get fixed up but also made eldery-friendly.

….do a nice, long trip to Japan once our little girl is 6 months old (she’s a little over 2 months at the moment) & a cruise around Iceland. Are there even any Iceland-cruises, I’m not sure, but  hey I think a lottery win could buy that.

…put the rest in the bank or somewhere remotely “safe” for future investments or things our daughter would need money for.

Yay, I did it! The first blogtober-post is done! Now, being a new mum and all might make it a little difficult to stick to the “blog post every day” thing, but hey – that’s the challenge after all and I accepted!

Seasonal Owls – pixel art (cross stitch)

I finished tha last handmade project I started before giving birth – and it’s a cross stitch project.

“Seasonal Owls”: Spring – Summer – Fall – Winter

I was working very hard on all four owls because I wanted to finish it before giving birth – I will not start anything else now while waiting to go into labour (^_^)

red-lilac shimmer cardigan (crochet)

A couple of days ago I finished another cardigan, not as colourful, but a tad more “chic” – maybe fitting best into autumn season. I used wine-red wool and lilac-shimmery wool (a silver thread woven into the wool) to create this “open in the front”-cardigan

The way it opens up in the middle, it should be perfect to wear over a little dress or something else that you want to show a sneak peak at. The whole cardigan is crochet from top to bottom in shell clusters (one of my faves), alternating between the wine red and lilac shimmer wool. Here is a close up of the sleeves to get a better look at the pattern

I attached two buttons at the top, so the cardigan would stay in place but neatly open up in the front when worn by baby/toddler. As for the button-design I went with silver looking ones that show grapes and leaves – thus perfectly going along with the autumn-feel of the chosen wool colours (in my opinion anyway)

 

 

Seasonal Tints

The leaves are turning yellow these days, some are already sailing to the ground in that slow-“fall” kind of way. Soon all the trees will wear a browny-red which means: Autumn is here and I’m getting excited to wear one of my favourite accessories of the season again.

Handwarmers – cozy fashionably ones of course

It’s not a very bright-sunshine day today, so I chose the dark red ones I called: “Seasonal Tints”. They are handmade, I crochet them myself (^_^)

If you want to dress your hands (and wrists) in a pair of those autumn coloured, handmade (by me) take a look over here.

I think handwarmers are such cool accessory for autumn & winter (they also make great presents from my experience (^_^): fashionable, cozy warm & comfortable!