I could live here…

I could happily move into this little flat in Berlin. And convieniently, it's for sale. Anyone out there with 100,000 euros to spare?

Fantastic Frank is so spot on with the styling on all their apartments, it's hard to believe that more real estate agents aren't following suit. It's so much more inviting that the standard, terribly phtotgraphed pictures that you usually see. If my real estate agent had taken pictures like this of the place we rent I might have been less relucant to fork over two month's rent (!! can you believe they used to charge three months rent here!!) for her fees.

All images via Fantastic Frank

DIY Pumpkin Spiced Latte

Everyone is going nuts for the Pumpkin Spiced Latte at Starbucks at the moment. Something about it just screams "Fall" to me and it helps make the tranition from tha last days of summer into cooler weather a little more bearable. But as much as I love it, I almost never order one at Starbucks – a tall costs nearly 5 euros and while I couldn't find the actual ingredients listed online, I'm pretty sure that it's full of additives and corn syrup... Since we always have pumpkin in the house (thanks to in-laws with an amazing veggie garden + a pumpkin-loving baby) it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make my own. I loosely based my recipe on a version found over at A Beautiful Mess

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice (although if you have pumpkin pie spices, they would work here too)
• a couple cloves
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree

Combine all the ingredients in a small pot on the stove and whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Continue stirring over a low heat for around 5 minutes, not letting the syrup boil. Strain the syrup and store in an air-tight container in the fridge. To serve I add 1 tablespoon to my espresso before I add the steamed milk to my cappuccino. If you like your coffee on the sweeter side, add another tablespoon. (It's important not to let the mixture boil, I ignored this step in my first batch and the syrup was much too thick, making it difficult to strain afterwards...)

The hardest part has been not drinking three of these in a day, definitely much more tempting knowing that the syrup is sitting in my fridge! 

Cooking the Internet #2 | Grape Jelly

One of obvious perks about having a father-in-law that's a hobby wine-maker is the free wine... Another is the grapes. Grape season is in full force over here and we've been innundated with this year's crop. Faced with more grapes than we could ever possibly eat ourselves, it only seemed fitting that I use them for my first foray into jam-making.

This recipe is also one of those classic what-on-earth-did-we-do-before-the-internet moments. The process of looking at the grapes, thinking about jam, googling a recipe and starting the juice extraction process was about 5 mins... I can hardly even remember what I would have done before – gone to the library? Or more likely the grapes would have gone mouldy before we could eat them all and they would have ended up in the bin. So hooray for the internet!

It's a two-day process and the finally jam is a bit on the sweet side, but slathered on whole wheat bread with cold butter it's delicious. Jam-making was so much easier than I expected that I'll definitely be making it again (and I don't know why I was so nervous about making my own jam...) Paired with homemade almond butter it would also make a cute housewarming gift.

• 1kg red grapes, preferable with seeds (stripped from the stalks) I used mixture of white and red since that's what I had on hand
• 450g 2:1 jam sugar
• juice of 2 lemons

1. Tip the grapes into a large saucepan set over a low heat, then cover and leave to gently cook for 5 mins until the juices start to run. Take a potato masher and mash up the grapes. Leave to cook for about 10 mins more, mashing every now and again until the grapes are falling apart. Place a clean tea towel in a sieve set over a bowl, then pour the grape mixture into this. Let the mixture drip through overnight. 
2. Measure out the juice (you should have about 600ml) and pour it into a pan along with the sugar and lemon juice. Set the pan over a high heat and bring to the boil. Let the mixture bubble for around 7 minutes. Put a small plate in the freezer for 5 mins, then pour a little of the juice onto the cold saucer. After 1 min, run your finger through; if the jam wrinkles slightly, it’s ready. Pour the hot jam into a sterilised jar. Will keep unopened for up to 3 months.

 Adapted slightly from the recipe found here.
 

Link Love 10.11.2013

If there's just one thing you watch this weekend and it's this interview with James Murphy, talking about failure, and how many tries it took him to get where he is today. I love this quote, and think it's something that's so relateable for so many people. I was always someone who found school and uni fairly easy, so landing in the "real world" and having to motivate myself to do more than just coast by was always (and sometimes still is) so hard…

"I was lazy. But ‘lazy’ never felt right when I heard that, when I said that to myself. ‘Oh, you’re lazy.’ It wasn’t that I was lazy, I was just really afraid. I was really afraid of failing. All my life I had been precocious and I was supposed to be smart and I was supposed to be creative. And I think hearing those things, makes you scared that you’re going to do something stupid or do something uninteresting and no one will see you as smart or creative anymore."

I was going to post a few other links, but actually, just watch that. And enjoy the weekend... I'm planning on hitting up an art fair and attempting to reupholster a chair for the kitchen. Wish me luck!

Weekly Quote #3

 

This week's quote is in honor of Marc Jacobs and his last show for Louis Vuitton. (A week late, but things have been crazy busy lately...) The Sartorialist has, as always, some stunning photos from the final collection. And you can watch the show at Refinery 29. Amazing opulent, dark set that referenced his 16 years at the fashion house. Carousel, escalators, black shag carpeting... I'm definitely not fashion-forward, but it's hard not to love this kind of glorious commitment to fashion and set design.