Vegetable Soup

Hi Everyone,

The weather is getting slightly colder and it seems as if autumn is slowly on its way. I just hope we will still get to enjoy a few days of glorious warm sunshine before the cosy season starts.

However, this weather inspired me to try out our family recipe for vegetable soup. It's really simple and quick but tastes amazing! And you know I like myself some quick and easy cooking…

So here we go:

First of all you need vegetables to your taste. I used a frozen casserole mix of carrots, onion, leek sweet and celery, added some cauliflower and filled the pot with water. Add some salt and start to bring it to a boil. In the meantime, squeeze balls of meat out of some sausages and add to the soup mix straight away. Once the soup has boiled for about 15 minutes, I added some broccoli. Of course you can skip this step if you don't like broccoli. Boil for another ten minutes and, voilá, the soup is as good as done.
Next, you need to remove your meatballs and mash your soup up a little, or keep it chunky, this is completely down to your own taste. Add the meatballs back in and it is ready to serve.

Just as a little tip, when my soup started to boil there was a lot of foam forming on the top. Freaking out a little, or actually freaking out quite a bit because I thought I really messed is up, I called my mum straight away.... Yup, mummy needed to help...... But she calmed me down saying the foam is normal and disappears while cooking.... It's just the fat from the meat.... Puhhhhh…..


Alright, this is it for today. I hope you will enjoy this recipe!!

Lots of love,
Linda

Best Affordable Makeup Brushes

Ok, who of us does not love a good bargain? Right? We ALL do!!!!

I was browsing eBay for just a teeny tiny bit a few weeks ago and spotted this little gem of a brush set!! Simply couldn't wait to let you know about it!

 

The set comes with four pretty synthetic face brushes, making them perfect for cream product application. 

Having had these brushes for a few weeks now and having used the heck out of them, they seem to be of great quality. In my opinion they can easily compete with MAC brushes. They also remind me soooo much of the Sigma brushes because the shapes contained in this set, have also been released by them. 

Believe me, I am all for good quality brushes, especially as you use them on your face every day, but I just don't appreciate the price tag of most. 

Their bristles are incredibly soft and dense. The design is right up my alley being sleek and sophisticated, featuring a black and silver handle, however, they are also available in black and gold.

This is, in my opinion, such a great find and for less than £5 you can't go wrong.

My absolute favorites are the tapered and angled brush. For blending out my under eye concealer I have not used any other brush than the tapered one since the moment I got the brushes through my letterbox (and of course after giving them a good clean...). The angled brush is perfect for applying cream blush and would also be amazing for cream contouring.

It also brings a domed and flat top brush. Both of them are great for blending! 

Overall, if you are on a tight budget or just happy to give these brushes a go, I do not believe that you would be disappointed.

You can find them on www.ebay.co.uk when searching synthetic kabuki makeup brushes. 

Unfortunately, by the time I was writing this post, the auction where I purchased my set had finished, but I am sure that it will come back on giving it a few days. Otherwise, there a loads more suppliers who are offering the same set for about the same price. I have seen a few for £6.70, which is still an absolute bargain.

Being usually shipped from China and you will have to expect a longer delivery time frame, but it's worth it.  

On that note, I will finish for today.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day whatever you are doing.

Lots of love,

Linda 

xxx

Chocolate Pralines Time

Hi Everyone,

this weekend it was finally time for my friend and I to hang out and have a good old girls day again.

We watched some good movies, drank tea and had strawberries with chocolate pralines which I made the day before.

They looked so pretty, paired with the berries that I could not go on having a peaceful afternoon without having to take photos before we could eat them. It was sooooo not easy to resist the temptation for even a few more minutes….

It is a typical blogging thing, that you need to take a picture of absolutely EVERYTHING before you allow yourself to eat, drink or use it…. but on a sunny afternoon when you are lusting after dark chocolate and fruit it is not that easy….

So after snapping my photos it was time to dump the camera in the corner and dig in…..

See you next time!

Lots of love,
Linda XXX

Spring is here!

Hello Everyone,

Last week I got to spend some quality time with my family back home in Germany. It was lovely!

For the first time in a few years I celebrated my birthday with my whole family, got to see all my friends, had some really good food and just spend a lot of time in the countryside and sunshine.

The weather was so amazing and the first spring flowers came out. They were all so pretty that I really wanted to share some pictures with you.

Enjoy!

Lots of love,

Linda

XXXX

Comfy but stylish travel

Hi ladies,

So I think, today I have perfected airport travel for myself. I mean, don't we all know that feeling of being in the airport, dragging our heavy bags behind us containing all those absolutely essential items like the extra perfume, 5 lipsticks (just to have a choice, you never know what might happen), an extra jumper for the cold plane, etc. Surely you get my drift.

But behold! So far, I was always one of those poor creatures that were dripping in sweat before they have even passed security, but once you actually get on the plane, you are freezing because you just don't like air conditionings! Typical!

So, today, I have changed up my outfit first and for all. Keeping it easy going but still cute. 

Opting for a light blouse with a cami underneath and pairing it with a nice pair of blue jeans did the trick. To conquer the cold on the plane, I have added a nice matching blazer which will keep me nice and snug. Also, putting on my black ankle boots helped me to avoid spending ages trying to take my shoes off and back on at security,  while having a massive line behind me, all staring me down with evil eyes because I am taking so long. A win win situation! 

I paired my outfit with some classic jewellery like light pink pearl earrings, a silver bracelet inlaid with lapis lazuli, a dainty little necklace and my usual watch.

That's the outfit sorted. Next my hand luggage....... I have used my little zebra trolley for all the bits and bobs that I can't seem to live without for about 2-3 hours. But this time, instead of keeping all my travel documents in my trolley, I chose a little cross body bag for little things like my phone, passport, boarding pass, etc.; my bank card also got thrown in which makes any shopping so much more convenient. 

And yeah, I don't have to dig through the trolley which is by now surely a huge mess on the inside.

By now, I am not sure how I have ever survived the airport any other way........ The only thing i am still carrying is my coat, but that is only because it was serially freezing outside today.

Lots of love,

Linda xxx

Makeup Academy Pro-Base Eye Primer

Hi guys,

A little while ago I purchased the Makeup Academy Pro-Base Eye Primer. I have given this quite a few tries and unfortunately, have to say that I am not that impressed with it. Usually, I am a huge fan of the Makeup Academy (short: MUA) brand, especially  for their eyeshadows which are amazing quality for their price tag, but this primer is a real let down for me.

The packaging is being kept quite modern and sleek with a white lid and a silver body, which is quite neat.
The primer itself is a light nude shade which blends easily. The consistency is not as thick as other primers and therefore it is really easy to blend. Once applied to the lid the primer is quite sticky. It takes some time for that disappear. Of course, there is pros and cons to this. The consistency made my shadow stick to my lid very well (unfortunately only for like an hour or so). But it also made it really difficult to blend the edges. 
And the worst was, that when I had my eyes open, it felt like it was a bit stuck. :-(
Not so nice!


My eyelids can become very oily, so it is almost essential for me to wear a primer because otherwise, my eye makeup will just melt down my face within a few hours. However, I had the feeling that the shadow was creasing even quicker with this primer than without!
I have read a lot of reviews on this product by now, and most people seem to be really happy using the primer. But for me it just did not do its job.


All in all, I would not repurchase this product which is a shame, because at £2.50 the price tag is amazing compared to some other brands out there.
Like many of you probably are, I am on a budget when it comes to buying makeup and simply can't go out and buy high end products all the time.
The primer that has worked best for me over time (and I mean even better than Urban Decay Primer Potion, of which I had a sample once) is the ELF (www.eyeslipsface.co.uk) mineral eye primer. At £1.50 it is even cheaper and works miracles on me.

In a nutshell, the effectiveness of this product comes of course down to a lot of factors like skin type, weather, etc. and might work perfectly for a lot of people. It is just not the right primer for me.

I really do not like to write negative reviews and I do want to highlight again that I am a huge fan of the MUA products and do own quite a few of them. And just because one product was a bit of a let-down does not mean that I am unhappy with the brand.

I hope that this review was helpful for you!

Love,
Linda

Cashmere

Hi Everyone,


I bought this fragrance about 3 month ago for my wedding and thought it is about time to give it a little review...

Cashmere by Next is a gentle and delicate fragrance that combines both flowery scents and powdery musk. It is a very warm and cosy fragrance with an added creamy softness that shows warm woody undertones.

As mentioned, I wore this as my wedding fragrance because I wanted something that was not too sweet and floral but also not too mature or sophisticated. 

So this fragrance really ticked all my boxes of what I was looking for for my big day. 

The scent is very long lasting on my skin, like usually more expensive fragrances would do. Even with all the dancing and hot weather (about 28 Celsius and sunshine), I still had the scent on me in the early morning hours.

The bottle is absolutely gorgeous, completely up my alley. It's got a total vintage feel to it without being over the top. 
This is definitely going to be a keepsake on my vanity!

You can get this fragrance from Next stores and you also can't beat the price:

30ml Eau de parfume at £12
30ml Eau de Toilette at £7.50

Lots of love,

Linda