christmas time is cookie time

Just one more night... and it's Christmas! I am really looking forward to all the family celebrations... the only thing that's missing is snow (but I'm still crossing my thumbs!). 

Within all the Christmas preparations, the last minute shopping, and the wrapping of all the presents I still found some free minutes for cookie baking. I usually try to do the 'classics', which for Switzerland would be Mailänderli (THE Swiss cookie if you like), Zimtsterne (star-shaped cinnamon cookies) and Brunsli (Basel chocolate balls). But this year, I wanted to try something new... So I just opened my cookie recipe book on a random page and went for that recipe: walnut chocolate cookies.

Challenge accepted!

This is what you need for the walnut chocolate cookies:

150 gr walnut kernels

100 gr flour

1 egg

1 pinch of salt

50 gr cold butter

50 gr sugar

1 sachet of vanilla sugar

100 gr chocolate (dark or whole milk or mixed)

Cookie cutters (I only used my snowman, moose and penguin cutters)

Step 1
Reduce the walnut kernels to small pieces, mix with flour and heap on your work surface with a small depression in the middle. Add egg and salt. Spread sugar, vanilla sugar and flakes of butter on the margin. 

Okay, now it's time to admit it: I didn't read the instructions properly! I thought the chocolate belonged into the dough... whereas the chocolate in this recipe was actually thought to be used for the decoration. Well, I had already melted the chocolate and added it to the batter when I realised my mistake. So I had to improvise! But let's continue with the instructions now slightly changed by my humble self.

 

Mix everything and knead it together to a smooth dough. Cover in cling film and store in fridge for min. 2 hours.

Step 2

Preheat oven to 160°C (air circulation), cover cookie sheet with parchment. Roll out dough to 5mm on a floury surface. Cut out the cookies and put on the tray. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the middle. 

(This is where I had to improvise... I had no idea how long these cookies would take in the oven having changed the original recipe. Seems like I left them in the oven for a minute or two too long...). Then, let cool!

 

Step 3

Now it's time for decoration (to make up for the taste - in my case only of course!). Melt white chocolate cake glaze. Cut off a tiny edge and start beautifying :) You can obviously add all kinds of toppings. 

 

 

So hey, everyone makes mistakes... it just depends on what you can make out of it! And sometimes, look is more important than taste :) although all my friends assured me that they tasted great... and the fact that they were all gone in 3 days seems to accentuate that. 

 

 

Now off off to bed! Santa Clause is coming to town :) 

 

xoxo linskaya

open up your eyes, honey!

  
What worth does the most beautiful dress in the world have, if you do not emphasize its beauty with your make-up. That's why I thought I'd collect the most beautiful holiday-make-up inspirations for you... 
There are no more words to be lost on that subject. Just enjoy the pictures! 

I'm sorry but I'm not really in the mood for great words and wisdoms. But pictures say more than words anyway... ;)

xoxo linskaya

not sucking in a vampiric sense [review]

The last week of the autumn semester at University is dawning. There is light on the horizon. Finally! 

In honour of this occasion - namely the end of the semester - I wanted to share with you one of my works I had to do for one of my courses at the English Seminar this semester. It's a review, something which I haven't done (professionally) before. A review about the new Twilight movie: Breaking Dawn - Part1.

via here 

(Be warned: In case you are a true Twilight fan, you'd better not read this or you'd probably like to tear me apart just like Jacob does with his wedding invitation. Also, if you haven't seen the movie "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" yet and intend to do so you shouldn't read it as well. There will be spoilers!)

So here we go:

        It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you are going to have a caesarean, it is not a good idea to have vampires in the room. Breaking Dawn, Part 1 does it nonetheless. The fourth movie of the Twilight saga is just like every other Twilight movie, only a few things change: glitter-vampire Edward Cullen still looks like a marble statue covered in talc, only now he wears shorts. The werewolves now argue telepathically with each other in English, which is just silly. And the great, melancholic soundtrack from Muse has been exchanged by dull and annoying pop songs that underscore every moment.
         The audience, mostly 16-year-old teenage girls, seems to enjoy it and the Twi-hards certainly will not be disappointed. Breaking Dawn, Part 1 picks up where Eclipse left off; feisty yet droopy 18-year-old Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and her stone cold hottie, the vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), aged 108, are about to get married. The wedding is so kitsch that anyone not obsessed with hair and make-up may find it a seemingly endless half-hour of near-death experience.
          Bella and Edward then fly to Brazil to a luxurious honeymoon hideaway on an island, where the morning after her wedding-night Bella wakes black and blue with bruises and all the furniture is broken. But apart from a passionless foreplay accompanied by the world’s worst pop music, the movie does not show us what happened. The most eagerly awaited deflowering in recent movie history takes place completely off-screen. From there it is on to the speediest pregnancy in history, and an alarmingly gruesome and bloody childbirth.
          Teenage girls will probably be less interested in the story bordering on an abortion-debate than in the earliest point where the werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner), Edward's rival for Bella's affection, rips off his shirt, which is within the first seconds of the movie. Jacob's muscles have been one of the most special of the movies' effects and that seems reason enough to get the character's shirt off as often as possible. These filmmakers certainly know their audience.
         The Hollywood machinery has a firm grip on the Twilight saga. One may wonder about the creative benefits of following the Harry Potter model and dividing the final Twilight book into two movies. In terms of economics, however, the decision is certainly a winner. The previous Twilight movies Eclipse and New Moon pale in comparison with Breaking Dawn in terms of revenues and number of visitors. But whereas the Potter series gained from that decision, the Twilight Saga loses almost all its momentum.
         The general difficulty of bringing page to screen is inherent already in the Twilight cast. Kirsten Steward manages to play exactly one face throughout all the four movies, stealing her heroine Bella Swan all depth of character. However, giving credit where it is due, Bella Swan's pregnancy is brilliant on paper. On celluloid, it is simply a joke. What Stephanie Meyer did so brilliantly in her book is lost in the movie.
          Maybe the studios have begun to believe that they, like the classy Cullen clan, are immortal and that almost nothing can kill them. They better hope that it is true, because Breaking Dawn, Part 1 sucks - in the metaphoric rather than the vampiric sense. The film does not have the bite that a vampire romance should have. It is as if all the life has drained away. A great number of its 117 minutes feel like hours, and whenever certain actors take the lead, time seems to crawl backward and Breaking Dawn begins to feel like yesterday's breaking dawn or Thursday’s.

I'm open to any kind of criticism, but bear in mind that one cannot argue about taste. I'm sure some people (in fact quite many) liked the movie... and I'm not attacking them. I'm just communicating my own opinion.

  

xo xo linskaya

a tiny little christmas tree

Guess what?! It's snowing outside! Oh, how these tiny fluffy white flakes make me happy... I know my hopes for a white christmas might be in vain this year, but I might as well enjoy the snowflakes as long as I can. 

And guess what else?! Yeah, it's already the fourth Sunday of Advent! Less than a week to go till Christmas... I'm really looking forward to it. To great a food, family time, lots of love and lots of presents :) 

So in celebration of these two things, I thought I would show you our little Christmas tree. He is itsy-bitsy-teenie-weenie (meaning very small, haha), but my boyfriend and I don't need a bigger one. I decorated it with different red Christmas bulbs and bow ribbons and a funny looking Santa Claus (hihi). 

Looks cute, right?

Light your fourth candle on your Advent wreath and enjoy a lazy (not for me) sunday!

lots of love, xoxoxo linskaya

Ladies, show your legs!

I just listened to the weather forecast for the weekend here in Zurich and it seems as if it will finally be cold enough for snow! I'm really excited; I almost feel like a 5-year-old again. Building a snowman, lying in the snow making snow-angels, getting cold feet and hands and red cheeks... ah how I love winter!

But as winter also equals cold, you need to wear lots and lots of layers to keep you warm. there is nothing bad about that! However, and it might indeed sound more than contradictory, I love to wear leggings and tights especially in winter... Don't even try to find out why! My mind even refuses to give me a satisfactory answer to that question...

That's why I will simply celebrate my queerness (in case you haven't noticed it) by showing you some awesome winter leggings and tights, either worn with a skirt or simply an overly long sweater (covering your but completely - everything else is gross!).

I'm especially in love with these Norwegian-style winter leggings with deer, reindeers or snowflakes on them and lots of colours like red, blue, black, white, brown, beige... I wish I knew where to get them! If YOU do, YOU must let me know :) thanks, anyway! 
(You might have spotted the one on my wishlist... just in case you don't know what to give me for christmas *grin*)

So, Ladies, let's show our legs and defy the wintery cold!

xoxo linskaya (haha, I almost wrote "legskaya"!)

holiday dresses

The holidays are getting closer and closer. It is high time to buy not only the presents for your loved ones but also to buy yourself some great outfit for the festive evenings. I would argue that every girl needs at least two outfits for the upcoming holidays: a christmas and a new year's eve outfit. And I would even go as far as saying that these two outfits best were dresses. 

In order to inspire you and to also show you how many cute and beautiful dresses for the holiday season are out there, I will now present you my selection for the holidays. I decided on four general colour directions: classic and classy black, bold blue, glittery grey and rose, and wintery white. 

To say it once and for all: you can never ever go wrong with a black dress, not even on christmas or new year's eve. Black is classy and flattering for female bodies that are sinuous. Add some glittering and sparkling details like a sequin clutch or some black jewellery and you're set.

Bold Blue: I must admit that blue is a rather bold colour to suggest... but it's nonetheless a beautiful and rather extraordinary choice. and with the dresses above I guess you will have to admit that blue is a great choice for a holiday dress. 

Glittery grey, old rose, or pink... any of these colours would make a perfect match for the festivities on christmas. I especially love the grey one in the bottom left corner with the genius back. Actually, I'm pretty much in love with all of these dresses...probably because they are glittering, glistening, sparkling and twinkling :)

And finally: wintery white. What is there to say about these dresses? They will make you look like an angel! I would suggest a white or beige creme dress like any on these for a bombastic new year's eve. The one in the bottom line with the gemstone-piece on the back is just amazing.

Ah how I wish I could own all of these dresses! I would simply stop wearing trousers.... and only wear dresses instead. Dresses are more feminine anyway!

xoxo linskaya

x-mas wishlist

This is my humble christmas wishlist. Somehow, I can't come up with many wishes this year. I have everything I need and want and I'm happy with that. Making up wishes so that other people can make a presents... that's not something I wanna do this year. I really don't need anything...

Should you wanna get me any of these things, you better first check with my boyfriend... (not that I will get all the things twice)... haha, that won't happen anyway!

xoxo linskaya

1 Leather bag for all my study stuff, Mr. Charmer by Aunts&Uncles  (I know I will get that from my mom and dad!)
2 Casio gold watch
3 Limited edition yoga Sigg bottle
4 iPhone case beige/red by Freitag
5 Sherlock season 1 
6 Sony eReader PRS-T1 wi-fi black (I will get that one for sure as well!)
7 Books on guerilla advertising
8 Scandinavian winter leggings

treasure from 1938

"... who is the most beautiful of all?"

Mirror: "I am!"

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And he's right! He is the most beautiful of all! The most beautiful mirror I have ever seen... and the best thing: he's mine, all mine!!! The day my boyfriend and I picked it up from this small thirft store, I was the happiest girl in the world! 

So much golden glamour is very seldom in commercial pieces. The ornaments of this piece are handmade and there is no second piece like it. And the most fascinating thing about this mirror is its age, this golden piece is an original from 1938.

I'm in love... utterly and completely in love with my mirror!

xoxo your linskaya 


(I'm oddly in love with golden things lately)

a flickering of golden dust

As soon as I start to realize that it is really already december (already the 2nd advent!), I fell like I need a little more glamour in my life. this year, it a kind of golden sparkly glamour to be precise! I am almost magically drawn to all these things... 

Whether it's a completely golden glittering dress, or simply a shirt, a pair of shoes, a skirt or a clutch... even if you had only one of these pieces, it would make your upcoming holidays stylish enough to make everyone jealous. on a new year's eve party you'd even be the queen of the night with a dress like this! Golden nails and make-up simply refine the whole outfit. 

I really hope that I will find the perfect glittering and sparkly piece for christmas.

And don't forget: some girls are just born with glitter in their veins!

xoxo linskaya

hello december!

Just quickly a few pictures of the Advent calender I made for my boyfriend this year. 24 cute dotted and striped grey'n'white paper bags filled with lots of love and sweet traits (and yeah, some more things) and stuffed into a basket! 

I love filling it and he already loves opening it...

xoxo linskaya