Love, Right Now: Flowers

Reading Joy's Real Life Blog Tips today felt soo good, this post came at the perfect time. I have felt kind of discouraged with this place on the web lately. I sometimes feel like I cant keep up, like there are so many great people out there doing great stuff that there is little point in me writing blog posts that lack in the writing AND the photography department.
And then I always thought I needed to do more, be more structured and professional when structures of all kinds make me want to run into my room, hide under a blanket and/or surf the web for the rest of the day.
Yesterday evening I had the great epiphany that since this is my space here, I can actually do what I want. Like talk about flowers.

Let's talk about flowers.
I never realized I had a thing for flowers until a friend's new girlfriend opened her own flowershop and I started going there to get to know her and support her. This was in November, and since then I bought myself flowers almost weekly.
Flowers have such an amazing ability to make a room come to life. They make me smile, standing there on my kitchen table, whenever I come home and walk into this room.

Obviously, I think, I didnt make this myself.

Here are a few things I have noticed in getting into this new habit that might be helpful if you actually have no clue about flowers but want to start buying them for yourself. And I absolutely think you should!
♥ To be safe, stay monochromatic. While I think mixing orange, white and rosa poppies worked, a bouquet of white, yellow and red tulips just looks all over the place and cheap.
♥ Even if you can't afford to buy a whole arranged bouquet of flowers, invest in some greenery/branches that contrast with the delicate flowers. 6 poppies alone in a vase look sad and alone, with their huge heads on their long naked stems. Throw in a few cherry branches and you've added texture and a flower more when they start to bloom.

♥ Don't throw out the the branches/greenery with the flowers. Just buy a few flowers to replace the old ones, take everything out of the vase, rinse the stems off, maybe snip and inch off, too. Discard anything that looks like it's rotting or starting to mould. Arrange the new flowers together with what is left.
♥ Don't worry too much about the arranging. I try to keep with buying odd numbers of flowers, but then I tell you to buy 6 poppies because really it is not that important. And once home you might decide to pick one flower out to make a mini arrangement for another room. I have also found that I can work better with the flowers in a vase than in my hand (as I saw my friend doing it). Just do what comes naturally to you and try things out. The flowers wont keep forever no matter how you arrange them, so stop worrying and enjoy them.
♥ Try something new. And learn about new flowers and their names. I want to buy some ranunculus the next time I go out to buy flowers.
♥ Try to stay away from roses. I like roses, too, and I have some in this pictures, too. But they can feel a bit boring, too.

And now go out and buy yourself some flowers. And not just because it is Valentine's day. Actually, you might want to wait until tomorrow or the weekend and stay away from the flowershops today. But do buy yourself some flowers, you deserve it!

Things I Love

Maybe you saw on my instagram stream that I am, actually cooking. I just find myself without time to take pictures, write about food, when all the time spent away from work, should be spent on writing my bachelor thesis, still. I have been avoiding writing this thing for way too long, spent hours making cookies and stews and whatever I could think of to get away from facing the only thing I really need to do right now.
I'll be back with new recipes soon, for now I leave you with a short list of things I found on the internet (ahem, procrastination?) that spoke to me.

This poem by Ellen Bass.

This gratitude challenge. I might not be doing it every day, but it still helps me acknowledge the things I am grateful for.

This cookbook. I want to learn more about Japanese cooking and really enjoy this cookbook. The recipes are not something for a weeknight dinner when you are supposed to write a paper, but I really want to try out the pom pom sushi among other things.

Mistakes We Make When Thinking About The Future I just need to stop making these.

This song. And the movie to go with it. Love both.

Craving this salad.And the crazy brain she describes. That is me, too. Struggling to find my place here, to come to terms with what it is I really want out of this one life I've got.

5 Things I Love Right Now

I enjoy listening to the Joy the Baker podcast, it always makes a day at work pass a bit more quickly. And last week they gave their listeners "homework", to list 5 things we love right now. And since I have a few things I wanted to share, I'm taking part in this.

So here are 5 things I currently love:

My New Bike:

A present from my boyfriend. I went on my first ride with it today, it was great. I am not yet used to riding a road bike (need to strenghten my neck), but it felt awesome.

Windowsill Pea Shoots:

I first read on Casa Yellow about growing peas for pea shoots on the windowsill, and it is genius. I would love to have a garden, but don't have the space right now, and not really the required time in summer, either to grow more than sprouts, but pea shoots I could do. And they are really great tossed in salads, stir fries or cooked with a little garlic and olive oil.

Reading About and Preserving Food:
I want to garden, and then I want to preserve the food that I harvest in my imaginary garden. Oh well, a girl can dream, but nevertheless I am preserving some things, like a small batch of not quite ripe strawberries made into jam or the bounty of lemons I preserved in salt to use later on in Moroccan dishes. Tajines, here I come. And there is still orange vodka to make.

Life As A Student:
Because I have lots of holidays, or just days without real schedule (the papers usually have to wait until about a week before I have to hand them in), and I really enjoy it. This Wednesday, my boyfriend and I are off to Berlin for a few days. We are visiting a friend of mine who lives and studies in Berlin for half a year, and we also plan to see the city and eat lots of great food. 

Tulips:
Because even when they are covered in snow, they are a sure sign that spring is here/near. Can't wait for the days that can be spent outside, enjoying the bike mentioned above, drinking coffee/or beer depending on what time it is, and eating all the asparagus, peas, strawberries... I can get my hands on.

What are you loving right now?