Good bye, Germany!

One afternoon last year in late summer my daughter planted herself in front of me with a heavy sigh. 

I was sitting on the couch, working, I looked up and asked her what the matter was. 

Noelle looked at her body, lifted her arms in the air and called out dramatically: 

"Oh, mom! I don’t want to lose my tan! I worked so hard at obtaining it!” 

I found this very funny and replied that for this purpose she would need to live in a place that was warm and sunny year round.  

Noelle: "And where would that be?"

Me: "Well, in California, for example."

Noelle: "OK. So can we move there?” 

Me: "Yes."

So I interrupted my work, looked for a suitable surf spot on the West coast of the US, found a pretty house near the beach, wrote to the owner, came to an agreement with him about a price, applied for visas, booked flights and decided to move to California with the kids for a while. 

(while you read this smoothly in one go, it occupied most of my time for weeks, for take note: if you wish to live in the US for an extended period of time, you might as well plan a journey to the moon. The effort is roughly the same.) 

Quick review:

At this point in time we were looking for a house – while having a fixed date when to move out of our old place of residence. 

There was no appropriate real estate anywhere in sight and I thought spontaneously:

why not?

Why should I move to just any house in the interim, when I can spend the time in a beautiful place just as well?  

Why should my kids study English vocabulary with a lot of effort and little fun, while they can learn the language with not much effort and a surfboard under their arm just as well? 

Why do I have to do everything the most sensible way – and not leave my comfort zone instead, venture into something new and invest my life time in an adventure rather than a kind of “living-on-hold-until-we-find-a-house”?  

Why should I live in a compromise object, while I could go on weeklong road trips along California’s coast with the kids, their skin sun-tanned (all Noelle ever wanted), their hair sun-bleached, their eyes sparkling? 

Why should I not do something that is exciting, new and certainly a little bit of a challenge for me? 

Who is supposed to decide this anyway? 

And who could I complain to afterwards, if I had lived my life just inside my usual comfort zone and if, as a consequence, it had offered only limited excitement? 

And to be quite honest:

I never even thought about the counter arguments, not even pondered about the pros and cons. 

"Can we move to California?” 

"Yes."

The simplicity of the question baffled me, and so I simply made a decision there and then, that afternoon on the couch. 

Very quickly, before any doubts, “sensible reasons” or laziness could get comfortable inside of my head. 

You know, things like:

"Bla, bla... but you need every cent for the renovation…” 

"Bla, bla... but this is all totally stressful, moving out, moving abroad, renovating, everything at the same time…” 

"Bla, bla... what about the kids’ schools, the blog, the construction site, and what if something goes wrong…” 

In the meantime we actually found a house in Germany, which will be our future home – yet it has to be renovated to the core and it will take many months until it is inhabitable. 

But we are not allowed to stay put where we are now either. 

So I will live in California with the children during this time and will return only, once everything is finished: my husband is in charge of the renovation together with a great team, and I am sure that they will be able to manage it wonderfully without me. 

Especially as I keep moving walls and pushing everyone to their limits while doing so. 

During the travel preparations I wrote a few emails back and forth with Eva, who translates Liebesbotschaft and some other blogs and who herself lives in California – she offered spontaneously to welcome my children into her family so that they may learn the language even faster.  

(Apart from that, she has four kids herself and runs a translating business – nothing happening there at all, she is bored all day long, as you can imagine…) 

The kids were instantly super excited – and so I put them on a flight to San Francisco yesterday and while I am writing this text, Ben and Noelle are already in California. 

Noelle waved good-bye with the words: 

"Mom, I think this is going to be the most awesome time ever.” 

And if Noelle says so, it’s true. 

I, however, am still here, packing up everything – planning to host an estate sale I might invite you all to attend?, – then I will put all that’s left into the basement of our new house and follow the children to California in a few weeks’ time. 

Once there I will collect them at Eva’s house, buy a car and take them to our house on the coast. 

Oh, I am so looking forward to it! 

The question every reader is justifiably going to ask herself right now: 

WHAT IS SHE GOING TO DO WITH ALL THE TIME WITHOUT HER KIDS?!! 

I have no idea! 

Never have I been without the kids for that long. 

Paint my nails?

Wellness?

Dancing on the tables?

For I will have lots of time in the mornings between 4 and 5 am, when I am not busy moving, working or on the construction site! 

And if, unexpectedly, things will get too stressful after all, I will say it in Noelle’s words, who recently had to finish an elaborate paper-maché object for art class here at home – it just didn’t seem to come together and it was nearly midnight, and when it was almost done she tossed it across the table and shouted: 

"F*** this s***, I'm going to California!"

:)

Or else I will sing the chorus of this song!

And I will dance on the tables.

I just wanna live 

Don't really care about the things that they say 

Don't really care about what happens to me 

I just wanna live 

Love,

Joanna

p.s. Isn’t Noelle just awesome? 

"OK. So can we move there?” 

I love her way of thinking! 

Thank you so much for translating this post, dear Eva - and for caring for my kids ;)!

Spring look + Pierogi.

Even if temperatures are still freezing cold – as soon as the sun makes an appearance, I really feel like bright colors and light fabrics. 

I am wearing a super soft leather jacket with a relaxed cut, a draped blouse with matte gold bindings and an oversize scarf (and a belt that is hidden beneath the blouse) – a pretty and uncomplicated look for every day.

The leather jacket’s color magically ensures a lovely complexion! 

If you like wearing big scarves, you will love this one for spring – it is a striking statement piece and matches a white T-shirt and jeans as well as a blazer. 

To conclude our time with my mom I wrote down the recipe for the Polish Pierogi – a rather time-consuming affair, as it went something like this: 

Mother: "So you take a bit of flour and water…” 

Me: "... how much flour? How much water exactly?” 

Mother: "Well, enough so you end up with an elastic dough.” 

Me: "Mom, that’s not good enough. I have to know it exactly.” 

Mother: "Well…I don’t know…roughly, maybe….and then some chicken…” 

Me: "How much exactly?”

Mother: "Follow your intuition."

Me: "Mom, we are not getting anywhere here! I can hardly tell 30.000 people to “follow their intuition”!” 

Mother: "And the cooking time…kind of follow your intuition…” 

And so on.

Now do try to put in writing a recipe in all its details, which has been passed down in your family for generations and is prepared blindly, so to speak! 

My mother actually does not measure the amount of flour or any other ingredient for this and REALLY prepares everything following her intuition – which, for me personally, makes her the Godmother of Cooking. 

When I watch her cook I feel like I don’t know ANYTHING. 

Polish Pierogi

dough:

2 ½ cups flour

1tsp salt

warm water (warmer than lukewarm) 

1 egg (optional, omitting it works just as well) 

filling:

14 oz fillet of chicken

1 large onion

1 bunch of parsley

salt, pepper

2 Tbsp creme fraiche

oil

vegetables:

1 ½ pints cherry tomatoes, halved 

1/2 bunch green onions, sliced  

9 oz mushrooms, sliced

4 Tbsp olive oil

Mix together flour, salt and egg, then add water bit by bit, while kneading with your hands, until you obtain an elastic dough. 

(if it is too sticky, sprinkle a bit more flour on it, if it is too stiff, add some more water, etc.). 

Cover the dough with a clean dish towel.  

Filling:

Cut chicken fillet into thin strips, sauté briefly and remove from the frying pan. 

Sauté finely chopped onion at low heat, until translucent. 

Purée the meat with a hand-held mixer, not too finely ( you shouldn’t end up with a homogenous mixture). 

Add the onion, minced parsley and crème fraiche to the meat mixture and generously add salt and pepper. 

Divide the dough in two parts, leave one part in the covered bowl, roll out the other half on a work surface, sprinkled with flour, to about 1/8” thickness. 

Cut out circles with the help of a glass, place about 1 tsp of the filling in the middle of a circle, fold it in half and firmly press the dough together along the edges with your fingers.  

In the meantime briefly sauté the mushrooms in olive oil, then add the tomatoes and green onions and cook everything for about 2 minutes more, add salt and pepper. 

Bring a large pot of salt water to a boil, reduce heat (water should not be boiling briskly), add Pierogi, a few at a time. 

They will first sink to the bottom, but rise to the surface shortly after that – cook for another 2-3 minutes. 

Remove with a slotted spoon and serve together with the vegetables. 

Lastly, my mom asked me to tell you that while the recipe might seem labor-intensive, the actual preparation is in fact child’s play. 

“Or else they will shy away from it…these days, when nobody prepares pasta dough from scratch anymore.” 

Sources of supply:

leather jacket: HERE

blouse: HERE

XXL scarf: HERE

belt: HERE

everything by Dein Lieblingsladen

Great news:

There’s a sale on at Dein Lieblingsladen and, among other things, my favorite sweater (the one I wore yesterday) is available at a reduced price!

Addendum:

Because the question just came up:

You can see not only my mom HERE, but also another two of her recipes. 

Love from 

Joanna (who has never in her life prepared fresh pasta dough.) 

P.s.

The slim-fitting jacket allows you to move absolutely unrestrictedly, because the leather is so soft and of such high quality – not quite unimportant, if you need to chase after small kids, for example.  

I, however, …

a) neither have small kids, 

b) nor will I have to chase after my teenagers soon, 

c) much less serve them hand and foot.

I will tell you in my next post why this is so. 

Cliffhanger par excellence!

Tadaaaa!

This post was translated by Ginnell Studio.

Crush on silver in February.

My eldest daughter Jil came for a spontaneous visit yesterday – definitely a reason to be happy! 

Both girls went to see the Fashion museum in the Ludwigsburg Schloß (one of the most beautiful ones in the world, and quite void of people on weekdays), and enjoyed the icy cold, sunny February day.

Before Jil got back on her plane 24 hours later, we all watched Baymax for the second time, at Ben’s request, ate popcorn until we felt sick, and enjoyed updates on all the important news about job and men in Berlin. 

There couldn’t be a lovelier day than that! 

Yesterday the long-awaited package from Familienbande arrived:

The simple bracelets are produced in a small, family-run goldsmith’s and are made of solid sterling silver – optionally, they are also available in a gold or rose gold plated version (which are the ones Jil and I already wear and people ask us about them all the time). 

The two white-gold plated bracelets were originally a gift for a man – but aren’t they perfect for sisters, too? 

By the way, you can have them engraved individually, but they look very chic and sophisticated even with just the  "Familienbande" logo. 

And is this silver backpack great, or what? 

The design is inspired by Fendi, the workmanship is superb and the color simply matches everything any time. 

It would be MY favorite piece, but unfortunately Noelle thinks that you shouldn’t carry a backpack past the age of 40.

But she says this with her own best interest in mind, of course! 

Sources of supply:

bracelets: Familienbande

Backpack: Asos (this one here is at least as pretty) 

Lastly, one more wonderful piece of news that makes me personally very happy: 

Julia from MyCircus finally blogs again! 

She does not only possess an immaculate sense of style with regards to colors, and the most beautiful collection of white vases in the world, but also a very individual, very inspiring interior decoration style, which she shows on her blog, besides other home stories. 

Additionally, she teamed up with another creative force – together with Inge she gives her readers the gift of many ideas and peeks into her everyday life. 

(By the way: my sister swears by the label’s pacifier keepers, and you can win some HERE!)

Love,

Joanna

Thank you to Ginnell Studio for translating this post!

The 10 best ideas for Valentine’s Day.

The great day of love is coming closer, and in order for you to not be completely lost and disoriented I gathered some important facts for you. 

The most important thing first: 

The day of expect a big bunch of red roses, a declaration of love and an invitation to dinner. 

Everything is supposed to happen absolutely spontaneously AND be a surprise – OTHERWISE HE DOES NOT REALLY LOVE YOU AT ALL. 

Oh, and above all: original! 

If it isn’t original you may rightly ask yourself: am I not worth more to him? 

Is this it?

IS THIS IT?!

Some other unique and original killer ideas for Valentine’s Day: 

1. A heart made of votives. 

2. A bathtub full of rose petals (red). 

3. Strawberries and champagne. 

4. A pillow with the picture of your beloved. 

5. A stuffed teddy bear with “I love you” printed on it (printed in red). 

6. A necklace with a heart pendant. 

7. A CD with your favorite songs. 

8. A box of chocolates. 

9. Something to do with Paris. 

10. Something home-made. 

Who wouldn’t be delighted?!

Tell me, who?

(please print out the above list, pin it to your fridge in a highly visible spot and point to the relevant number with meaningful glances.) 

Rule of thumb:

The more red it is, the more he loves you. 

Because love is measured in roses, candy and jewelry – otherwise it simply isn’t true love. 

Alright, there you have it, nothing can possibly go wrong now! 

Correspondingly I have cookies, Eiffel tower and LOOOVE cake for you – grand ol’ Hollywood romance. 

And hand-painted cups. 

There can’t be any more love than that. 

I...

- made heart-shaped cookies from chocolate shortbread (recipe HERE),

- stuck masking tape to cups from the flea market and spray-painted the lower half,

(I actually don’t know how well the spray paint will hold up, so you better recreate this with real porcelain paint) 

- melted chocolate, added some cinnamon and poured it into silicone domino molds. The dominoes pop out perfectly!  

- baked chocolate letters from cake batter and embellished them with chocolate icing. 

Everything was instantly gobbled up by Jil’s friends (my eldest daughter is visiting for a day), which you can take as a fool-proof indicator: 

love is in the air.

Dominoes chocolate mold: Amazon

LOVE – silicone baking mold: Amazon

Porcelain paint, gold: Amazon

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE and so on…

Love,

Joanna

p.s. If you are truly in love, you will even like the crappy votive candle heart, I know ;)…

p.s. While typing this post, I’m having a conversation with my daughters about the advantages and disadvantages of a Brazilian wax. 

This is as romantic as it gets around here. 

Thank you to Eva Ginell for translating this post!