Friday Pretties: A studio, a crepe and a birthday boy!

A sneek peek into my studio

where i hope to be working this weekend, and start catching up with all my unfinished paintings there. I can't wait to have more creative time again and will start scheduling that from next week on. Time to set "Bloom" (my Motto for 2011)  in motion, as the first green buds are visible in the garden now!

Yesterday, we had cherry crepes with vanilla cream cheese for tea - a little celebration for my youngest boy Marin, who turned eighteen and happens to love pancakes and sweet treats of all kinds! He will be going out to town with friends tonight, but yesterday, since it was a normal school-day, we had a family afternoon at home and it was lovely. There is something about having big boys, i thought. As much as i miss having small kids sometimes, i adore having more space for myself again, and, since my kids are both creative people themselves, it's great to be able to talk to them as friends. We still are very close, but now, they (almost) stand on their own feet and occasionally even try to fly a few meters!

 The last picture, that's Marin, seen by Robin, his older brother who takes a lot of photos and does fashion shoots for our magazine. He looks like a pianist there, which he really is for he got so good on the piano lately. But the thoughtful posture is only one side of him - he can be awfully funny and witty.

Have a lovely weekend, with everything you like and a special treat

 just for yourself. See you very soon!

Photos: 1st: Martina Voigt-Schmid, 2nd: Aquired taste, 3rd: Robin Benito

Recipe here,  more Friday Pretties here!

Cherries & Mint

We'll take the cake with the red cherry on top. Navjot Singh Sidhu

Red cherries are irresistible if you see one of them on something good. A bowl of them, freshly picked, looks delicious.
But a HUGE tree of them can be overwhelming. Like the tree we have in our garden. So many cherries up there, we could feed all the birds of the village!
Sometimes, like now, i wish i had more time to revel in making things from what the garden offers, but mostly, we just eat it as it comes.




An exeption was the Mint-Cashew Pesto i made the other day from the abundance of fresh mint growing in our herb-patch. You just blend it with Cashew nuts, extra vergine olive oil and a bit of lemon peel and orange juice. If you're a mint-lover, it tastes great over pasta or in a salad-dressing.

You need:
75 g Cashewnuts
40 g fresh mint leaves
15 g fresh basil leaves
170 ml olive oil extra vergine
grated peel of one lemon or lime
Dash of orange juice
salt & pepper

Mix Cashews, mint and basil leaves, olive-oil and a dash of orange-juice in a blender. Stir in the lemon-peel and salt and pepper to taste. In a tight jar, the pesto keeps in the refrigerator up to 2 months.

Photos 1-4 MVS, last photo and recipe: Living at home