Gossip Girl Style - Chuck Bass

Hello everyone :)

This week we are going to focus on the men's fashion in Gossip Girl starting off with Chuck Bass. 
Not only is Ed Westwick hot as hell but they also decided to put him in some seriously good looking suits.  And every women that denies that men in suits are sexy clearly has never seen a men wear one or just has no taste in fashion. 
I always looked forward to seeing what Chuck looked like because with Chuck you never knew. Also his weird fable for silk dressing gowns, which he never wore twice, was interesting to watch.
So let's start, shall we?

His signature thing to wear is probably his bow-ties and neck ties. Cuck Bass has some ties that honestly only he can wear, everyone else would most certainly look ridiculous with them. Also the way he combines them with his shirts is quite unique.

Another thing that only a Chuck Bass could wear is his combination of colours and patterns. He is a bit like Blair in that way which I guess is supposed to display the connection they have. Their styles complement one another.

I mean who else would wear a light green tie with a pink shirt and on top of that it is a tie with polka dots and a checked shirt. 

There really is not that much to say about the Chuck-Bass-way-of-dressing it just is very classic and dressy.

Maybe I should mention his most favourite accessory though: Blair Waldorf :)

                    

 Together they looked even more fabulous then on their own!
But they also put Chuck in some really weird outfits. And to be quite honest he mostly looked a little funny when wearing shorts :)

I mean: Really? Who thought this outfit would be a good idea?

Or this one? The director must have been half asleep when signing off on this outfit!

I have some more pictures although I don't have anything else to say. I just wanted to add them so we can all take some more time to admire how good Ed Westwick looks :)

 

An of course one other thing comes to mind :

x
J.

International Day of Friendship

Hi guys!

Did you know that it is the International Day of Friendship today?
I sure as hell had never heard of this day before until they mentioned it on the radio today.

The first World Friendship Day was celebrated in 1958 so it is quite an old tradition but nevertheless had I never heard of it.
Also the tradition of giving friendship bracelets originated from this celebration. I clearly remember making them when I was little and giving them to literally everyone.
My grandma has thousands of these bracelets made by all 9 of her grandchildren.

Although I have never heard of this day before I thought it would be a good thing to write about, since it got me thinking about my friendships.
Now I don't have that many really close friends, but the ones I have really mean a lot to me.
I don't know why there is so view of the really close ones but there sure are a lot more people that I consider friends.
I would describe myself as a very energetic person. If I don't go for a run every second day I will not be able to walk around like a normal human being anymore but instead start jumping. And I do get that this might make it quite hard for other people to take me serious. But if you know me you will also know that it is completely normal for me. I'm a very happy person and I get overly excited about the smallest things which can seem crazy at times.
Those are probably the reason that some people think I am very annoying and striking, but I don't do it to get extra attention it is just the way I am.
I have still to meet someone who is like me. I know everyone has some friends that are the same kind of person but I haven't found someone like me yet which can be quite lonely from time to time. Because although I love my friends and I know they love me I still feel like they don't get me now and than.

Taking all this in consideration I am very grateful for the view people that put up with me on a regular basis :)
And I would like to thank some of these people. They will know who they are :)

My best friend:
Quite possibly the only person I have never ever lied to. He is my save haven. Whenever I need him he is there for me and he has been through a lot with me.
He also is the only person that is like me for most parts at least. We are so much alike sometimes that I feel like I need to kill him just before I realise that I did the same thing not that long ago and he got equally as annoyed.
My mum called him when I was in hospital and he came to visit the next day bringing me my favourite stuff to eat and drink. I just know I can always count on him and no matter how far apart we live we will always have this connection.
I am very grateful to have him in my life not only because he is always there for me but also because I know that if I ever need to be reminded of who I am, he will do it. He tells me the truth even if I don't want to hear it which can hurt at first but you will come to appreciate it. I truly treasure every moment we get to spend together because they have become really rare since I moved away.

Another very important person for me at the moment is someone I go to university with. She is awesome and I get along with her so well even though we are complete opposites. I never thought I could be friends with someone like her but boy was I wrong.
We don't see each other often but when we do it is so much fun even if it is just for 5 minutes on campus.
She is such a beautiful person and I'm not only talking about her looks. She is sincere and she always manages to astonish me with her wisdom. There is something about her that makes her a very fun person to be around and easy to talk to.
From the moment I met her she was endearing and candid and it is cute how gullible she can be sometimes :)
And she gets me and most of my weird habits. Even if she doesn't I don't think it would matter:) Because although I wouldn't describe myself as socially awkward I would most certainly say that I can seem a bit strange if you don't know me.

And the third person that I am lucky enough to have in my life at the moment should know who they are :)
We don't know much about each other but I do like to be around him and we haven't known each other for long.
I don't open up to people easily but with him I feel like I don't have to, for him to be my friend. At least not straight away.
In addition I think that he still has to get used to me being the weirdo I am sometimes. For example when I get so happy that I just randomly start jumping around while we are walking to the bus stop. And I hum when I feel at peace with myself and the world :)

So to all three of you:
I am lucky to know you and really do appreciate you.
Just wanted you to know that and if I still knew how to make these friendship bracelets I would totally make you some. 

So have you told your friends how important they are to you, today? If you haven't there is still some time left to do so.
I think it is important that we tell our friend what they mean to us from time to time.

From all the gifts fate has given us, there is no greater good than friendship - Epikur von Samos

Friendship is one soul in two bodies - Aristotle

You and me: We are one. I can't hurt you without hurting myself. - Mahatma Gandhi

x
J.

Creative Sunday

Hey guys :)

I have 2 things for you this week:)

1.

And just to be clear here I wouldn't be able to walk on those heels. And don't even get me started about dancing :D But I quite like their idea although a lot of people watching probably thought they were nuts :)

2.

I don't know if it actually is that creative but it sure is crack up :D However I'm guessing a lot of you might have actually seen this one before :)

Enjoy :D

x
J.

Movies

Hi guys!

How is the weather where ever you are?
It is such a glorious day outside but right now it is way to hot to be out there. The weather forecast predicted 39°C for today and  it is around 1 pm. S since it's the hottest time of the day I decided to hide inside and write this cheeky little blog post and then go back outside and enjoy the rest of the day with my cousin in Munich. 

I personally really enjoys a good film. I own a lot of  dvd's, but not all of those movies are that good. Some I just bought because they are funny or because we needed them for our youth group at church. 
But there is 2 movies in my collection that are absolutely amazing. They are my favourite films to watch, apart from the 'Lord of the Rings-Trilogy'. But the problem with 'Lord of the Rings' is that not everyone likes the genre of the film. A lot of my friends have never seen it because the just don't like fantasy in general. 
So I chose 2 films that everyone could watch.

Dead Poets Society:

This movie is quite old but nevertheless it is one of the best movies out there. At least for me. 
It's about a group of young students that discover their love for literature with the help of their new teacher. And throughout  that process they slowly figure out who they are as much as what they want in life. 
Their teacher (devotedly played by Robin Williams) breaks away from traditional teaching because he thinks it doesn't do literature any justice. He takes them away from just reading things and instead gets them really thinking about it, to a point where they meat in a cave and start reading poems in their spare time. 
I don't think you have to enjoy literature as much as I do to enjoy this film. It just genuinely is an amazing movie. 
It shows how difficult it is growing up if you have no one to believe in you. And I think it is a great example of an incredible teacher. I think if more teachers would be like the one Robin Williams embodies in this movie there would be a lot more creative people out there.
Every time I watch this movie I go away with the wish to read a book. 

Here is a great clip from the movie, that shows how dedicated they are to their teacher because they respect and love him that much for what he has given them:

It is such a beautiful movie with a sad ending that makes me cry every time. 


On a much lighter note I have a movie that is a bit newer and very funny.

Little Miss Sunshine:

The movie is about this chubby little girl Olive that wants to become a beauty queen. As result the whole family goes on a journey through America to get to California for her beauty pageant. 
It soon becomes clear that there is a lot more to that family then just the little girls obsession with winning this competition, called Little Miss Sunshine. 
Her brother doesn't talk because he wants to make a point, her uncle tried to kill himself because the guy he fell in love with didn't love him back and her grandfather is coaching her strip tease moves for her performance at the pageant. A lot of things happen while they travel across the country and most of it is pretty hilarious. 
But although this movie obviously is a comedy it has a pretty good message that it brings across. Because the core of this movie is not the journey to that pageant but the journey they take as a family. It is a cute movie with a great story. And Abigail Breslin is amazing in her role as Olive. Because this little girl is a pure as she is innocent. In her own way she is the reason the family grows together because with the wisdom of a child she understands what is going on without actually knowing it. 

Little Miss Sunshine is a great movie for a family movie night or to watch with friends and I can highly recommend it.

Have a good day everyone. I'm going to further enjoy the sunshine :)

x
J.

Food Friday- Chicken Curry

Hi guys :)

I have just realised that there is a pattern to this Friday posts but it is not intentional :) I didn't intend it to be about a restaurant one week and then about a recipe I tried the other. That just happened.
Following this pattern it's about a recipe again this week :)
Yeah I love cooking.

This week I made chicken curry and a delicious dessert with a friend.
You might recognize the kitchen as it is the same friend :)
Both recipes are actually from Jamie Oliver but since we never tell each other what we are making till we actually start making it, I did not know that beforehand either. 
He chose the main course and I did come up with a dessert.

Chicken Curry:

Ingredients: (serves 4)

6  cloves of garlic

7 cm peeled ginger

2-3 fresh red chillis (without the seeds)

1 tbsp mustard seeds

1 tbsp paprika powder

1 tbsp Garam Masala (Indian spice blend)

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander seed

Olive Oil

200 g plain yoghurt

4 medium-sized chicken breasts, skinned and chopped into pieces

1 tbsp butter

2 medium-sized onions, peeled and chopped into thin slices

2 tbsp tomato purée

1 small hand full of cashew nuts (chop up small)

sea salt

100 ml cream

1 hand full of fresh coriander, chopped

juice of 2 limes

How to do this :


Chop up the chillis as thin as possible and mix with the finely grated ginger and garlic. 



Heat up some oil in a pan and roast the mustard seed till they start bouncing then mix them with the paprika powder, ground cumin, coriander, 1/2 tbsp of Garam Masala and your chilli-ginger-garlic-mix.
Take half of your mixture and add the yoghurt (set the other half aside).
Marinate the meat in your yoghurt-spice-mixture for half an hour.

Melt the butter in a pan and sweat it with the onion slices and the other half of your chilli-ginger-garlic-mix for about 15 minutes. After that you can add the tomato purée, 1/2 liter of water and 1/2 tbsp of sea salt and let it simmer for another couple of minutes. Set aside afterwards.


Fry the marinated chicken till it's done. Take the sauce, add the cream with the rest of the Garam Masala and season it further if needed. 
Your almost done now. Just add the chicken into the sauce with the fresh coriander and the lime juice and your good to go.

We decided to have it with rice but it would also be really good with naan bread. And Jamie Oliver recommends you have a cool beer with it :D Since I don't drink I had sparkling mineral water with some more lime juice which was also very good although it doesn't sound that exciting :)

Enjoy your meal.

DESSERT!!!!! As you might have guessed by now: I'm obsessed with desserts! There is nothing in this world that is better then a good dessert :)

For our dessert we had something called Banoffee sundae which was sooooooo good I don't even have words to describe it. But it takes quite some time to make, since part of what you are making is ice cream, yeah!!! It's a great summery dessert though.

Ingredients: (serves 6)

• 6 medium bananas
• 200 g full-fat Greek yoghurt
• 1 good pinch ground cinnamon
• 2-3 tablespoons honey, depending on how ripe the bananas are
• 50 g raisins
• 3 tablespoons dark rum
• 50 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 50 g hazelnuts
• 4 tablespoons dulce de leche

Slice 4 of the 6 bananas and whiz them up in a food processor with the cinnamon, honey, raisins and rum until smooth (if you have more time you can let the raisins soak in the rum for a bit beforehand). And off in the freezer it goes for about 5 hours. 

           

When your ice cream is done you can start with the rest. Grate the chocolate and roughly chop the hazelnuts, then toast them in a pan till they are golden.
Heat the dulche de leche in a small saucepan until it is runny and, while it warms up, slice the remaining 2 bananas.








Take your dessert glasses or whatever you wanna have the dessert in and start with a layer of your sliced banana. Top with a scoop of banana ice cream, drizzle over the runny dulche de leche and finish off with the hazelnuts and your grated chocolate. 

 
























Sadly ours did not look like Jamie's lol. If you want to have a look at the original recipe: jamieoliver.com


And the most important thing: Have fun cooking :)

Yes we are silly enough to make faces with cooking spoons and our food :D

x
J.

Serena Van der Woodsen - Gossip Girl Style

Hi guys!

We are back: Fashion Wednesdays here we go again. 
I had a little break last week due to my upcoming exams but from now on everything goes like planned again!

In the first 'episode' of Gossip Girl Style I covered Blair's style and we are now moving on to Serena.
Serena's style throughout all the season stays very playful and sexy. She has those amazing legs that she shows off whenever she can. Serena loves wearing big striking extravagant necklaces with dresses or jeans and t-shirt. 
During the first season she wore a lot of jeans with boots and a cool tops but became a lot dressier throughout the second and third season.
Her style never became as fancy as Blairs and for me was a lot more down to earth.
And being quite tall Serena also wore a lot of flats which I always like. Because although I love wearing heels my feet don't seem to agree with me, sadly. And I also am not that small person so whenever I wear heels I tend to be taller then my friends.
All in all I have to say I love Serena's style and believe it is suited for a wider range of women whereas Blairs style should mostly only be worn by her. I have seen people wearing outfits based on Blair's and it did not look good (at least I didn't think it did whatever that means)

I think you can really see how her style evolved over the years and with every new season.

Here are some with her beloved big necklaces which probably are her signature thing to wear.

Another thing that I love about her style is her handbags! I wish I could afford only one of them :D

And who could forget about some of the amazing dresses she wore:

this one is so gorgeous and not just the dress but
 her hair as well. It works perfect together

Here are 2 outfits that I can totally see Serena wearing:

And to finish this off, here are my all time favourites:

                 

Not only did she have amazing clothes but she also had really cool hairstyles. I just really loved everything she was wearing and would happily steal her wardrobe with all the things in it :)

Would you not wear any of the things on the pictures? Let me know :)


x
J. 

Creative Sundays

Hi guys!

So I have been studying for my exams a lot lately but you all know that. 
Studying however can become quite boring from time to time so I spend o lot of time on the internet for procrastination :)

And over the last couple of weeks I have found quite a few very creative things that I would like to share today.

It's from a YouTube channel called POTATOwillEATyou

I know the cup song is really old but I just really liked this version and came across it whilst going through videos clips from Pitch Perfect

Here is a really creative TEDx Talk and if you don't know what Ted is you should google it cause it is a great thing.

And finally a little twist on Disney Songs :) I thought it was incredibly creative and very well made!

 got it from : Paint

x

J.

Food Friday - Café Max

Hi there :) Did you have a good week?

Last weekend when my mum came to visit I took her to a lovely restaurant that I had been to before with friends. I didn't actually eat something when I went there but it looked really good so we thought we would give it a try. And when I say I took my mum to the restaurant I mean that I showed her where it was and she payed for everything :D

My mum came to Augsburg for work related stuff . They had some sort of conference here in Augsburg and she thought it would be nice to stay with me for the weekend. It was great to have her here in 'my world' and I really enjoyed spending time with her.

So on Friday we decided that we wanted to go out for dinner. We met up with 2 of her colleagues, that she is friends with and went to Café Max.

It is located in the town centre of Augsburg right next to an ancient fountain from the 16th century. Although it is on the main street it is still lovely to sit outside which is what we did, as it was a gorgeous day. 

The waiter that came to take our orders however was a little strange... we think he might have been drunk as he had really red eyes and didn't look like walking was going really well for him. 

He mixed our orders up quite a bit and kept flirting with us in a weird way, that made me feel quite uncomfortable.

So we weren't off for the best start but by the time we got our meals they had assigned us to a different waiter that was friendly and courteous. 

(We only found out later that the waiter we started off with had been told off and send home because the owner really places value on treating customers right)

My mum and I are very adventurous when it comes to food so we ordered a starter without having a clue as to what it could be. 

They serve a lot of different things but because of their Greek origin mainly greek specialities.

So we had something called Tirokafteri as a starter. It turned out to be some sort of spicy cottage cheese that was incredibly delicious with the bread we were given. 

This is the Greek farmer's salad that my mum got and I can tell you it didn't only look good. 
My mum and I are big on sharing so although we ordered two different things we both had a bit of everything. 
It was dressed only with olive oil and balsamic vinegar which is really simple but something that I absolutely love. 
The ewe's cheese had been pickled in something totally delicious but don't ask me what it was :D

I had a caesar salad with chicken and bacon which you can't see here because there was lots of parmesan on top. They had wrapped the chicken in bacon which made it even better. I don't usually eat bacon, simply because I don't like it that much but I quite enjoyed it combined with the chicken and the cheese. 

For me there is no way you can have enough cheese and having been a vegetarian for almost 11 years I quite frankly am obsessed with good cheese. 

My mum's friend also had the caesar salad and sadly the waiter who was serving us at the beginning had not gotten our orders straight and actually forgot about our other friends dish. 

Our new lovely waiter however was very sorry for what had happened and brought her a little treat from the kitchen because at this point we all had our food and she didn't want to wait any more.

Since we all had loads of food on our plates we also shared some of that with her.

And just as we were happy with the situation the chef, who also happens to be the owner, came to our table and apologized himself. 

He was very sweet and said how sorry he was about 5 times.

And then this happened:

Yes it's Hugo and we got it for free

They brought us cocktails and even were kind enough to make a new one for me, as I don't drink alcohol.

But they weren't done apologizing yet! Shortly after we got the cocktails, this arrived at our table:

I had never had anything like it before but it was sooooo good. I actually wish you could all taste it. 

Again I don't know what it was called but the chef himself brought it to our table and explained what it was. 

It basically is a artichoke filled with mince and some really tasty sauce topped with some cheesy delicious stuff :)

We had a great night at Café Max and the people that work there are very nice and really take their time to explain the menu.

I had such a good time there and I love good food but for me the whole experience of going out for dinner has to be worth going again. With Café Max that definitely was the case.

I really enjoyed myself and their food looks nice and tastes even better. 

And being served by the chef was an experience on it's own :)

So I highly recommend this place to anyone who wants to have a nice night out: Good food and great service that really pays attention to their guests. 

x

J.