Rainy Day Reads

Music Bills - Lunchmoney Lewis Locked Away - R.City Marvin Gaye - Charlie Puth feat. Meghan Trainor Jackie and Wilson - Hozier Photograph - Ed Sheeran ´74-´75 - The Connells  Strip No More - Lukas Graham Books Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein Rose Under Fire - Elizabeth Wein We Were Liars - e. lockhart A Star Called Henry - Roddy Doyle In the Shadow of the Banyan - Vaddey Ratner Legend - Marie Lu The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire - Dan Howell and Phil Lester Blue Lily, Lily Blue - Maggie Stiefvater Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn Cress - Marisse Meyer Random Korres Body Lotion - this is a really good brand, it’s suitable for vegans and has almost all natural ingredients. And it absorbs into your skin really quickly, so you don’t have to wait too long, before you put your clothes on (a major factor when it comes to your shower routine in winter time!) Crunchy Nuts - a gluten free snack of peanuts encased in crunchy salsa-spice. Yum

I always feel like there are some traditions that make up Christmas. If you miss them, it just doesn't feel like Christmas at all. Here are some of the ones that have made it to my Christmas list:  1 - Eating the snowball chocolates that only come out for Christmas 2 - Having a real live Christmas tree with tons of decoration 3 - Seeing all the lights strung up all over the city 4 - Catching a glimpse of Santa 5 - Wrapping presents 6 - Watching "Home Alone" 7 - Watching the Disney special on TV on Christmas Eve 8 - Lighting festive candles around the house 9 - Baking Christmas cookies 10 - Having an advent calendar I feel like I have managed most of them this year, although the tree will have to wait until I get somewhere more spacious to live. What's on your bucket list?

When December rolls around any town with self-respect whips up a Christmas Market. There is something cozy about the stalls selling snacks, hot drinks and Christmassy decorations, and it is even cozier if you go away from home to enjoy it.   This year I went to Berlin to experience the Christmas Market there and do a little Christmas shopping. Berlin is a big city and it has a lot of Christmas Markets. I was only there for one night, so I stayed pretty close to my hotel. Luckily I had chosen to stay near Alexanderplatz, which is a lovely area, with many shops and its own Christmas market.  The market has numerous stalls that sell everything from glazed apples, hot dogs, mulled wine and fried mushrooms to Christmas stars, woolen socks and glass baubles. Prizes are a bit expensive, but may of the items are worth it. I was there from Saturday to Sunday and during Saturday afternoon and evening it got VERY busy. Being so busy I would not consider it child-friendly as i

I’m not great in the kitchen, so I wouldn’t say something is easy if it really isn’t. But I just made these chocolates, and it took me maybe 20 minutes. It is very simple, only uses a few ingredients and is fun to do with bigger kids. It includes a bain marie to melt the chocolate, so if there are any smaller kids involved, they can roll the marzipan balls and decorate them after they have been dipped in chocolate.   You will need:  Marzipan Chocolate Sprinkles of your choice. I used toasted coconut flakes, chopped almonds and sea salt,but you can use any sort of sprinkles you want. Colored sprinkles, licorice powder, dried edible flowers, any sort of nuts, anything you want really.  Roll the marzipan into small balls. You can make them any size you like, but I like to keep mine small for a good chocolate to marzipan ratio. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie (a bowl over a pan of boiling water) and carefully roll the balls in this until they are covered in chocolate. T

The stocking is not really something I have been used to doing for Christmas Eve. Rather, we would use a stocking as an advent calendar receptacle rather than wait for Christmas Eve/morning to empty it. Santa would put a gift in your stocking each day or perhaps only some days, and you would get to check the stocking every morning.   When you are little you are quite excited for all the erasers, pens, stickers and tiny toys you receive, but once you get older, you might wish for gifts of better quality and usefulness. This is when Santa perhaps only leaves gifts every few days or so.  I find that it can be hard to balance between buying gifts that are actually wanted and will be used and not blowing your budget on the stocking stuffers alone. Below is a list of some ideas for smaller, but useful gifts, that I think would go well in any stocking. For pampering : Face masks Lip blam Nail polish Small sized body lotion Hand creme For the reader : Inexpensive b

When the weather gets cold everyone likes to cozy up to a hot drink. Everyone except me,  really. I've never actually liked warm drinks as they just make me thirsty. And that kind of defeats the purpose of drinking, I think. Every now and again, I can be tempted by a hot chocolate, but even then it mostly consists of whipped cream. So good!! But for people who don't have my thirst issues there are a number of hot drinks to go for during the festive season! Around Christmas time everyone gets obsessed with mulled wine, which I have never understood. I don't really like wine or cinnamon or the dried fruits you put in, so there is really nothing in that cup to tempt me. I have tried it before, ages ago, because everyone raved about it, but I decided to stick to my hot chocolate.  Where I live we do not have Starbucks, so I cannot join the red cup brigade. This doesn't really bother me, as I am sure I would not like most of their drinks, as I don't like coffee!

I usually get all my present wrapped in the shops, because when they ask, I’m too lazy to say no. But this year, in the spirit of getting Christmassy, I decided to do my own wrapping. I think it looks really lovely when all your presents match, and the paper they use in the shops can sometimes be a bit boring.   I went for three different types of paper and a lot of colorful ribbons with cute decorations on them. Then I got some stickers for gift tags, as they are super easy to use, and some extra decorative stickers.  Brown paper really lends itself well to any sort of decorated ribbon, and with a base of brown paper you can’t really go wrong. Colored paper is a bit harder to match ribbon-wise, but when you do it looks great. I didn’t really go too crazy with my wrapping. As I have said before I don’t really have a good eye for matching stuff, so I played it sort of safe. Still, I think it came out looking rather good.  There are a lot of options out

I love to travel, but it can be a bit expensive with all the gear you need, aside from the tickets and accommodation. Especially if it is your first big trip, you might find it helps to put a few of the bigger items on your wish list. That way you can save some money to spend once you are out in the world.   Before my big Asia trip in 2009 I got a lot of the stuff I needed for Christmas which was a big help as far as my travel budget was concerned.  Below are some of the bigger items any traveller might appreciate under the tree. Backpack - an essential if you are off traveling the world. Unless you are the type to bring a long a suitcase with wheels. But those can be expensive too. Perhaps settle for a gift card or consult the person you are buying for as a backpack is a very personal choice. Some like outside pockets, some don’t, some want them big, some small, some like color, some don’t. There are endless possibilities, so if you do decided to spring for the actual ba

It can be hard to stay just a little bit healthy during the festive season with all the chocolates, drinks and good food going around. So here are a few ideas to help you out. Just switch these snacks out for some of the cookies and chocolates when you have an evening in or if you need a little something to keep you going in the afternoon. Now, I am not a heart nut, and I know practically nothing about nutrition and such but common sense tells me these things must be better than chocolate.  Hummus: Make a lovely hummus and have an assortment of vegetable sticks to dip in it. I usually just use a can of chickpeas (rinsed), some garlic, some ground cumin, salt and a little creme fraiche to make it smoother. Just blend it all up and you are ready to snack.  Fruit: You can just set out fruit for everyone to choose from, but if you want to jazz it up a little, cut different fruits into chunks and skewer them on a wooden stick. It's always more fun to eat healthy when there is a

These are for those people in your life that deserve a bigger gift come Christmas Eve, but where you are always stuck for what to get them. A fun gift in a jar filled with many little things will have a wow-effect of its own, and if you manage to find a theme that fits the person, I think it will be a sure hit. It is a lot easier to find many small things to fit a theme, rather than one big thing to fit the person completely.   Some of these things might be hard to fit in a mason jar, so feel free to use any sort of container that suits your need. Either go for a Christmassy one, or for one that suits the theme. You could for example use a packing cube as a container for a travel themed jar or a beach bag for the pool-vacation themed jar. Have fun with it! For the traveler This is based on the backpacking sort of travel. See below for ideas for a pool-vacation jar.  Fill up your container with mosquito spray, rehydration powder, packing cubes, a travel toothbrush, mini bat

Gifts in jar is a fun way to give gifts to those you struggle buying for or if you need to bring something for the hostess of a Christmas party or something similar. This post will focus on smaller, mostly inexpensive gifts in a jar, suitable for bringing along for the hostess or to give any friends or relatives you don’t really exchange bigger gifts with.   When making a gift in a jar, it is nice to have a theme. It can just be the person you are giving the gift to, if they have many varied interests and you know them pretty well. If you are struggling to come up with something, some sort of theme will help you fill that jar in no time. Below are a series of suggestions for themed jars and inexpensive items to put in them, that will hopefully help you out. Hot Chocolate in a jar Pour some of your favorite hot chocolate powder mix into a cute, small container and tie a bow on it. Add a small bag of marshmallows and a cute mug and you are good to go. If they really deserve a

We all know that Christmas isn’t about the money. It’s not the gifts or the food or the fancy clothes or the parties that matter. It’s family and love and joy…even so Christmas tends to be expensive. Because you DO want to buy the perfect gift for your loved ones, and you DO want to eat good food, and you DO want to look nice for all the parties.   If money is tight there are a few ways to save money though, that won’t make too big of a dent in the holiday spirit.  Decorations: The first tip is RECYCLE! Use your decorations from last year. Don’t let the fancy magazines and store windows tempt you into thinking that you need to scrap all of last year’s red and gold decor for this year’s silver and purple. You are doing Christmas for you, and I always think the coziest decorations are the ones that are handed down in the family, and the slightly wonky homemade stuff, that also serve as keepsakes from Christmases past. I think this kind of decor adds the cozy family feel, rat

The 13th of December is Lucia Day. When I went to school this meant that all the students of the older classes dressed in white, and walked around the school with lighted candles in hand singing the Lucia song. All the lights would be turned off for this and you would sit waiting for the Lucia parade to enter your classroom hearing them coming down the hall. It felt really exciting and like you were part of a grand tradition. The tallest girl of the class would be the Lucia “bride” wearing a crown of pine branches with 4 lighted candles and she would lead the parade around the school.   I think this is a really nice tradition. It is based on the fact that in the old calendar this night was considered the longest night, and Lucia brings the light back again. She was originally a saint, and this day is her saint day.  It turns out the Danish tradition is actually derived from the Swedish. In Sweden the tradition of bringing light (and food) around mostly took place in the homes

The holiday season seems like one long line of Christmas parties with food and drink in abundance. At the end of the month all those parties can leave you tired out if you don’t prepare.   Outfit Be sure to pick something comfortable! Of course you want to look nice, but I try to go for a mix between comfort and style. In Denmark Christmas parties are all about the food! And the drink, to some degree, but mostly the food. So be sure to pick something that isn’t too tight around the waist.  As for shoes, keep them comfortable too. There is sure to be a lot of dancing going on, and you need that exercise to start burning off all the food you’ve just gobbled down. For the same reason I like to put up my hair. All that dancing is sure to create some heat in the room and an up-do will give you a little air. Just make sure it’s a sturdy hairdo that will withstand vigorous dancing.  The same goes for make-up. If you know you will be dancing make sure your make-up will last or