Screaming for Ice cream

Hello all you beautiful people!
Hope you are all doing well, and I hope that spring has reached you where ever you are. I wish I could say that spring has reached me here in northern Sweden, but yesterday we had a snow storm, and it seems like spring will never come.

I wanted to write a post about this really easy-to-make ice cream, and I thought that the end of April would be a good time to share the recipe because the weather has warmed up then, but no Sir!

Petulantly I will share this post anyway, cold weather be damned!

So about this ice cream, it is a recipe that I saw on Manuela Kjeilen's (of Passion For Baking) tv show "Baka med Manuela" that aired here in Sweden. It's really easy, and doesn't require an ice cream making machine (which I don't have), so you can just about do it without any tools (although an electric mixer is good to have).

Easy Vanilla Ice Cream

Recipe adapted from Manuela Kjeilen.


INGREDIENTS

• 1 can (397 grams) sweetened condensed milk
• 4 dl whipping cream
• 0.5 teaspoons ground vanilla pod

DIRECTIONS

Place the condensed milk and the whipping cream in the freezer for 20 minutes before you start. Take out the condensed milk from the freezer and pour it into a bowl. Whip it with an electric mixer until it is a bit lighter and fluffier. Pour in the whipping cream and continue to beat until it becomes thicker. Add the vanilla and whip some more until it is fluffy and thick. Pour into boxes or bowls and place in freezer chilling it, preferably over night.

I served my vanilla ice cream with my chocolate brownies, and they were SO good together. To see my brownie recipe click here. I added a bit of colour with sprinkles from Sweetapolita (here).

It really is super simple to vary this recipe and create different flavours. In another post I will show you how you can create other yummy ice cream flavours.

For now though, I wish you the best of days!

Much love,

Cat hat by PattyMac Knits

Hello all you lovely people!

Today I want to share a special feature on an amazing person that is the creator behind the hat I'm wearing in these photos. I want to introduce you to PattyMac Knits, which is run by the talented, innovative and super kind lady Patty McGuire.

Patty is one of the nicest people I have gotten to know through instagram (@pattymacknits, @pattymac100) and I'm constantly grateful for IG for connecting me with people like Patty. It happens to be that Patty lives across the world from where I live, in Virginia Beach (which makes me imagine that it must be very different from northern Sweden as it's got the word "beach" in its name!). She's a photographer since 25 years, which is so evident from the artistic and beautiful photos she takes, often of her twelve year old Golden retriever, Willie, modelling her luxurious knits.

Patty describes herself as a Creative Entrepreneur, and I can but agree. She loves to encourage people to try something new, and she inspires people to craft and knit. Patty thinks that it is important to create things with our own hands and she loves to knit because it makes her feel happy, hopeful, alive and connected. Being the wonderful person that she is, she wants to help people experience these same fulfilling things, so she designs fun knitting patterns, and then show people how to make the projects!

Patty also wants to start getting into selling online classes in knitting and crafting, and I for one am looking forward to that, since my knitting knowledge spans only so far. So keep a sharp eye out! But for now, Patty's etsy shop, PattyMac Knits, is filled with her unique knitting patterns, and a limited quantity of finished knits. Everything you can find in her shop is handmade by herself.

I am lucky enough to have gotten a handmade hat from Patty. It is one of her so called "cat hats", which are ridiculously cute. It is quite a special one as it is made with Wool and the Gang luxury yarn. And let me tell you this yarn is incredible. It is soft and thick and so warm! It's the perfect hat to have when you live in northern Sweden. I just want to let everyone know about this hat, because I feel like all the people living in Umeå deserve a hat like this. But back to Patty, you can find the hat I'm wearing, finished and handmade with love here. And another version of the hat (in black) can be found here.

The little ears on the hat make it look so adorable and appeals to my quirky side. I find myself feeling very cute in the hat, and I get a bit silly-nilly wearing it. It's like the child in me comes out to play for a while. Or maybe it is the kitten in me.

For Patty it's not just about knitting, it's about changing the world one stitch at a time. She has a beautiful way of looking at life and she tells people to, in life as well as in knitting, not give up. I often find myself inspired, especially by her intelligent words but also by her beautiful blog. Lastly one thing that I cannot omit to mention is one thing that Patty and I both share a great love for and that made us connect in the first place - Harry Potter! She actually has made Gryffindor scarves for her dog Willie. If I had a dog it wouldn't go far without a Ravenclaw scarf.

I just had to add this photo (above), because it is so cute and I love it! Here is the woman herself (together with my favourite book series). The maker of all knitted things in the shop and the mind behind all of the patterns. One day I hope that we'll sit together and talk about Harry Potter and knitting, but until then this blog post is as close as we get to that.

Hat: c/o PattyMac Knits (here)

Dress: ModCloth (Stylish Surprise)

Cardigan: Lindex (old)

Tights: Lindex (old)

Shoes: Ecco (here)

Get connected with Patty.
Website: http://pattymacknits.com/
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PattyMacKnits/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/PattyMacKnits/
Instagram: @pattymacknits and @pattymac100

So, are there any knitters out there? I've got one of Patty's knitting patterns but have yet to go downtown to buy yarn. It looks like I can do it though, and I'm going to heed Patty's words - I won't give up!

Much love,

Style Icon: Chuck from "Pushing Daisies"

Hello all you lovely people!

It is time for another one of my style icons, and this one I have actually mentioned previously when the blog was still a baby.

Pushing Daisies is one of those TV series that I wonder why they cancelled. It was so unique, quirky and beautiful. For those who may not know, it stars the handsome Lee Pace as Ned the Pie maker who has the ability to bring back the dead to life with his touch. Ned's sweetheart in the series is Charlotte "Chuck" Charles played by Anna Friel. Anna Friel is gorgeous in basically anything, but they also happen to put her character in a lot of vintage, 50's and 60's inspired clothing. Chuck's style is impeccable, it is feminine and girly, elegant and graceful with a touch of quirk.

I want to wear everything Chuck wore in the two series of this TV show, and even had a dress made for me by Gertrude Made that was inspired by one of Chuck's dresses. See the post about that dress here.

Chuck is actually one of the people (yeah yeah, I know she and the wonderful world of Pushing Daisies are fictional) that inspires me most when getting dressed. She is one of my style icons that has the most influence on me, and I've even purchased two vintage dresses because they were a little bit similar to ones that Chuck wore (they will come to the blog as soon as the weather warms up a bit). I feel like Chuck's looks aren't really contemporary (which I think is why they appeal to me) but they're not outdated either, so they work in a modern setting.

If you haven't seen Pushing Daisies I suggest that you do. It is one of my favourite TV shows, especially the first series. It's colourful in every sense of that word. And the wardrobe is amazing!

Much love,

Silly nilly

Hello lovely people!
I hope you are all doing great. I'm posting this a bit earlier than I had planned, but it's because I couldn't sit on this outfit any longer, I love it so!!

This dress from Dear Creatures (that I got via ModCloth) is one of my favourite dresses. It's business on the top and party on the bottom. I adore how it is classic and quirky at the same time. I love all the little details, and I enjoy wearing it so much. I especially like wearing it with red accents, which I have here.

One of the red accessories I had in this outfit was my red beret. On instagram (@curlsncakes), I asked if wearing a beret indoors was silly?

I got plenty of kind and nice answers saying that it wasn't silly and to go for it.
I did go for it, and wore it all night for a party that took place indoors. And I didn't feel silly at all. But I came to the conclusion that if you wear something you feel comfortable in, even if it is a little bit silly, it won't matter. You have to wear what makes you feel great, without minding what others think. And so I did, and it was all fine.

Beret: ModCloth (old)

Dress: Dear Creatures via ModCloth (old)

Cardigan: ModCloth (here)

Tights: Primark

Heels: ModCloth (here)

So from now on I'll wear berets more often - even indoors.

Much love,

Chocolate Brownies

Hello all!
Hope you are having a great day and a wonderful weekend.
I recently went over to a friend's for afternoon tea or "fika" as we call it here in Sweden. I don't like going empty handed anywhere so I brought brownies with me.

The brownies were popular and I was asked for the recipe, at which point I very quickly wanted to say that it was on my blog. But guess what? Even though I've talked about brownies on the blog before, and have shared the recipe in a feature on Lindsey's blog Have Clothes, Will Travel, I have never actually shared the recipe for my favourite brownies on the blog. I am making amends to that now.

Chocolate Brownies

INGREDIENTS

• 120 grams dark chocolate, chopped in pieces
• 115 grams butter, chopped in pieces
• 200 grams sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 100 grams flour

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 165°C.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a saucepan of heated water. Add the sugar and vanilla, whisk. Whisk in the eggs, on at a time. Stir in the flour. Pour into a 20x20 cm pan and bake for about 25 minutes.

I usually add chocolate ganache to the brownies once they've cooled for extra chocolatey-ness. Find the recipe for chocolate ganache here.

And lastly add sprinkles. These sprinkles that I used here are from Sweetapolita, and it's called Galaxy Twinkle Sprinkle Medley (on etsy: here). I just love Sweetapolita's sprinkles. They are so beautiful and really add to anything you put it on. These plain brownies looked so pretty with the sprinkles.

Now I can finally say that my famous brownies are up on the blog!

Have a beautiful rest of the week.

Much love,