Why I've Been Away + Baby Wall

Exactly 3 months ago, I went through the most horrible and traumatizing experience with the best and most wonderful result - I became a mother for the first time (and probably last, at least while I remember the process). My brain has been mushy, most of the days are just a blurry memory, I've been in a huge amount of pain, sleep deprived and my house is chaotic (at any given time we have about 10 cloth diapers spread strategically place around the house).

I couldn't trust myself to have a coherent thought let alone write a coherent post.

But a few days ago things started to get better. My son, has been sleeping seven straight hours a night, which contributed immensely to mine and my husband's sanity. And I recovered from most of the crap - apologies for the language - that afflicted me after the birth (if I believed in such things I would swear I'd been cursed).

 So I wanted to make this post, to let all my readers now that I intend to come back and hopefully restart sharing regularly some inspiring images, beautiful interiors and delicious recipes. At least as much as my little Viking allows me to.

And since I'm here, I leave you some photos of the gallery wall I'm building for him. He sleeps facing the wall so I try to put up some images to catch his attention, including the lyrics of his favourite lullaby - the baby likes words, and it helps me and my husband because we're too old to memorize it!

photography by | life as a moodboard |

| Spring on the Wall |

I've been wanting to show you these pictures for over a month now. Unfortunately, for the last three weeks I haven't been able to use my right arm (I'm still not supposed to, but I'm cheating a little bit...shhh!) because I managed to get a shoulder bursitis. Normally this would be fairly easy to fix, but because I'm pregnant I can't get proper medication, and all I can do is not move my arm and wait. I'm writing this post (slowly) with my left hand only, but I still need to be careful to avoid getting carpal syndrome and then not being able to move any of my arms...sigh. 

I tell you, I've been bored out of my mind!

Anyway, this was me having a bit of fun with some sweet little flowers - snow drops - that normally mark the ending (or the beginning of the end) of winter. I just stepped outside, picked up a few and decided to stick them upside down (with little bits of adhesive mass), on an empty photo frame, and hang it on the wall.

A little bit of freshness and Spring indoors. I Hope you like the idea.

photography by | life as a moodboard |

rainy (happy) days

Because rainy days can also be wonderful...

photography by | life as a moodboard |

Calendar on the wall

As promised, I'm sharing today a few pictures of my 2015 Printable Calendar on my gallery wall.

You may recognize the Minimal Vases from a previous post on this blog. They were a Christmas present from my mother in law, and I love them!

photos by | life as a moodboard |

And in case you missed it here is the printable for the first three months.

(click here for the rest of the Calendar)

calendar by | life as a moodboard |

Hello...Ho! Ho!

A photo from my Instagram with some of my DIY Christmas decorations.

- The Hello...Ho! Ho! print you can find below on this same post. 

- For the hanging stars all you need is black cardboard, a white thick thread and a star shaped cookie cuter. 

- The jar is actually a chocolate milk bottle covered with chalkboard paint (you can see the DIY here). 

- And I placed some string lights inside a metal plant pot for an unexpected effect. 

The decorations are all done, now I just need to do (a lot) of baking!

 

photography and print by | life as a moodboard |

On Instagram (at last)

Yes! I have Instagram now!

I'm still getting the hang of it but I'm having lots of fun and loving it. 

You can check my profile here: life_as_a_mooboard. And I also added an Instagram button on the right column, next to my other social networks.

Now I just need a little bit more natural light to use anything as an excuse to walk around the house taking more of these snapshots.

photography by | life as a moodboard |

DIY | cardboard butterflies

Ah! Weekend is here...so how about I leave you with an idea for a simple and fun DIY: 

cardboard butterflies on the wall!

I made mine in black and white to be consistent with the colours of my (in progress) gallery wall. But imagine how great it would look as a colourful project for a little girl's birthday party...or just a grown up's party really!

how to do it:

Print the butterfly template  (click on the link to download it) and cut it out. 

Fold the cardboard of your choice in half.

Draw the half-butterfly on the cardboard (the straight line of the template coincides with the fold).

Cut out the butterfly and open it.

Fixate it on the wall with double tape or sticky fix.

Repeat as many times as you like (or have the patience to...)

photography by | life as a moodboard |

Hope you like it,

Have a great weekend!

Milk Buns | Recipe

Today I'm very excited to share with you my latest culinary obsession - my little 'milk' buns (something like pain-au-lait in french, or pão-de-leite in portuguese). 

Now, making bread at home may sound like to much trouble when you can just go to the shop and get some...but trust me, these are no trouble at all and they're so, so worth it! 

The recipe is really simple and fairly quick, they taste great (especially with just butter, right out of the oven...hmmmm) and, as a bonus, your home will smell like a bakery! 

for 9 buns:

1 egg

50g butter (2 Tb spoons)

1,25dl water (1/3 cup)

1,25dl milk (1/3 cup)

25g yeast (fresh yeast)

60g sugar (5 table spoons)

500g flour (4 ½ cups)

pinch of salt

(optional: one egg yolk and sugar for the topping)

Start by dissolving the yeast in lukewarm water (about 30.C). I use water from the tap, it's perfectly fine. Then add the milk, also warm. Let that rest while you measure the other ingredients, so the yeast starts activating.

Put everything in a big bowl, including the liquids with the yeast, but leave about 1/3 of the flour out. The butter should be at room temperature (or 20 sec in the microwave if you, like me, always forget to take it out of the fridge in time). 

Mix the dough very well using the spiral attachment on your electric mixer (the one on the photo above). Add the remaining flour and mix all very well again. 

Cover the bowl with kitchen plastic film, or a clean plastic bag and a rubber band, and place it in a warm place. I normally place it next to the radiator, covered with a tea towel. Let it rest for about 30min to 1 hour. The dough should rise a lot and get full of air inside (looks kind of like an alien nest, but that's all right).

Shape the buns and place them on an oven tray covered with parchment paper. I roll them in a bit of flour to help shaping them. And they don't need to be very big, I normally make 9. Let them rest there for 30 more min. They will grow a bit more and look really pretty. 

Before putting the buns in a pre-heated oven at 225.C, you can get a nice finishing touch by brushing some egg yolk on top and then sprinkling it with sugar. I normally make half like this (because it reminds me of the buns I had when I was a child) and the other half just plain.

Bakes for 12 to 15 minutes depending on the oven.

photography by | life as a moodboard |

Pretty simple right? 

As always, if you give it a try I'd love to hear about it.

Black and White | Home Shots

A little bit of black and white around the house.

(and my birthday present shoes...life is always better with new shoes!)

photos by | life as a moodboard |

nude tones | SNAPSHOTS

Lately, I've been very much into nude tones combined with greys, black and white. 

And I noticed, that without really planning it, part of my kitchen has become a display of ceramics and ingredients in those same tones. 

So I grabbed a few of those things and took some quick shots.

I'm thinking of framing one of them and have it in the kitchen now!

photos by | life as a moodboard |

home made | HOME SHOTS

 Staying home, on a rainy day,
with home made bread and home made jam.

photos by | life as a moodboard |

2014 CALENDAR

As promised, here is the whole printable calendar for 2014, and an idea of how to display it.

hope you like it!

photos and calendar by | life as a moodboard |