Cupcakes

Recipe of the day, the vanilla cupcake with chocolate butter cream! I know, the recipes I give in here are not the craziest ones, but I'm not a big fan of those weird taste associations. So I keep it simple, vanilla and chocolate, this is a basic, and everybody love basics. Plus, it is easy and quick to realize it, the perfect recipe for someone just starting with bakery. Sugary treats, here we come!

Ingredients:
The cake:
110 g of soft butter
110 g of brown sugar
2 big eggs
1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
110 g of flour
1 tea spoon of baking powder
4 tea spoons of milk

Firstly, put your soft butter into a jar and work it with a wooden spoon in order to make it very soft and creamy. Add the sugar, the eggs and the vanilla extract. Mix it all and then add the floor, baking powder and milk, then mix it all energetically once again. The ingredients must form a smooth cake dough. With the help of two tea spoons take a little bit of dough and put it into paper molds. Then in the oven at 180° for 10 to 15 minutes, until the cupcakes have a nice color.

The butter cream:
150 g of soft butter
200 g of icing sugar
100 g of chocolate

So easy to bake that it hurts! Melt the chocolate in a jar, and soften the butter in another one before incorporating the icing sugar little by little. Add the chocolate - when it is cold - and then 30 minutes in the fridge!
Then you just have to decorate your cupcakes, and most of all, enjoy them!

xo

Amy

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Favorite Autumn Lipsticks

New season means new makeup, and when it comes to lips it is always funny to play with colors in Autumn, when our style changes and sweater make their apparition. So today I would like to share with you my selection of lipsticks for the Fall, variating with shades but also with applicator! As we know, Autumn is always about those dark colors, burgundy and deep red, however, even though they will be part of my short list I would also like to share with you some other lighter shades perfect for the colder times and not only reserved to Summer evenings. So here are my favorites.

Rouge Dior, "Poison Matte"

This lipstick is just the dream. The color might frighten the shyer ones, however this deep purple will perfectly match a simple dark outfit, a casual one, and make it chic in a second. The application is really nice, and feels surprisingly great on your lips. Yet, like for every deep dark color, you will have to applicate it several times a day in order to keep the right shade and not to wear lipstick stains all over your lips after brunch. Anyway, this is the lipstick for the sassy girls in will of showing their darker side.

Buy "Poison Matte"!

MAC, Lip Linner Pro-Longwear, "Morning Coffee"
MAC has always been one of my favorite brand, mainly for its fancy but cray collabs - with Charlotte Olympia, to own the collection was simply goals - however I always had this really bad feeling about their lipsticks, leaving your lips dry and uncomfortable. So I found the perfect solution, turn to the lip winners. The application allows a lot of precision, and the texture is way lighter and you barely feel it on your lips. Plus, this color is a real dream if we are feeling like wearing a grey turtle neck knit and a cat eye. Light and pink but still fancy and discreetly sexy.
Buy "Morning Coffee"!

Clinique, Rouge Impact, "Pink Style"
We could think that dusty pink is only right for bright summer days or to keep company to a strong smoky eyes, but actually not. This Clinique lipstick is goal when it comes to take it easier and make it lighter on autumnal days. The application feels very nice and with that color you won't have to color your lips too many times in the day. The perfect lipstick if you dare wear crazy Christmas jumpers or just if you feel like being less exuberant for this cold windy day.
Buy "Pink Style"!

Laura Mercier, Lip Pencil, " Deep Wine"
My love for lip liners and lip pencils used for full lips and not only contours is quite recent, but I feel like I'm going to go even further with the lip liner craziness. And Laura Mercier will for sure help me out with that. The brand has so many different shades, it almost makes me feel dizzy. But I found the perfect one for this Autumn, "Deep wine". Its name says it all, right? A deep red, almost purple, so pretty and so comfy as well! Maybe my favorite one between them all if I had to choose...
Buy "Deep Wine"!

xo

Amy

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Romance

The other day I found myself wearing dirty sweatpants with an old t-shirt belonging to my boyfriend, eating cereals in bed, watching Making a Murderer, while my beloved was only in boxers, eating pasta. And at some point, when I realized it, which is two days after, I couldn't help but wonder, where is romance in our relationship? I was afraid. Couldn't find it anymore. Of course we have some romantic dinners, we wear decent outfits and I wear sexy undies every night because I know we will have sex at some point for sure. However, this is not really matching my definition of romance. I'm not stupid enough to think that it is only about bouquet of roses and expensive date nights in fancy restaurants, but I still need a little bit of romance in the details. Even though a grand gesture is time to time also welcome. This can be a fancy dinner at home, a present for no reason, a love letter, I'm not complicated. Well, I am. Anyways, I was afraid. Can love go on without romance? This question scared me so much that I had to stop writing and only came back now to answer it. 

   At first, I thought that yes, without romance love would die. After all, a relationship cannot be restricted to ramen soups in bed and dirty sweatpants, right? Routine scared me, because I knew that when romance goes away it is replaced by routine, and then the end comes. So I started getting mental and asking my boyfriend to do as many romantic things as I could propose. At first he thought I was cute with my little presents for no reason, with my invitation to go to the restaurant, with my new undies, with my love declaration at midnight. But he didn't really change his behavior. So I started to freak out. I didn't want to be the only one keeping romance alive, I needed some help. And so I talked to him, telling him about my fear. "We never go to the restaurant, we never take the time to look nice when we are together, our couple is DYING!". He didn't really know what to answer, and so we went to bed without a word. During the whole night I hated myself. I just scared him to fulfill my little-girl-in-a-magical-world-with-princesses-and-princes-and-fairies-and-f***ing-unicors dream. Silly me. 

   The morning after we both went to study, and everything seemed to be fine but of course I knew I had scared him with my mental disease: the fear of loosing romance. Two days after that he called me, "Wanna come over tonight?". I went, and he was there, wearing sweatpants and an old t-shirt. He didn't get my point. Maybe the other night he didn't even listen to me. I hold my tears and went to the living room. He had cook pesto pastas. Almost the same meal overtime I come over. We eat, I enjoy this time but cannot stop thinking about our romance collapsing in front of me while I was eating. We went to bed, had sex, cuddled, and then, out of nowhere, he opened a box of fancy chocolate and we started eating hem in bed while listening to Bon Iver and talking. That night I realized I was stupid. Love is love, romance is just a gesture, and thinking too much is the real thing that can kill your couple. I never enjoyed such a simple night as much as I did this day. 

xo

Amy

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A day... in Zurich

Going on a train on a day off, no plans, no maps, just deciding when you wake up at 12 am to go to Zurich just because you can. This were the kind of things my boyfriend and I used to do when we were still living in Basel. Just a day away, just the will to discover a place we didn't know. We did that in Bern, and one day we decided to go spend some time in Zurich, just for few hours. This year in Basel wasn't that easy, however it enabled me to discover Switzerland and most of its big cities. It was the kind of day I used to love while we were there. The kind of day we had for us two, where we were free to walk around without any goal, without any specific idea. Just the will to get lost somewhere we didn't know, just the will to escape the routine for a day. And Zurich was quite good at it. So here I am sharing with you the pictures I took on that day, and remembering with nostalgia this perfect day away with my lover.

The city center, with its shopping area and nice restaurants

Secret garden on the top of the city

Getting lost in the old city

View over Zurich

Peaceful side of this crazy city

xo

Amy

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Vogue Paris

Recently I've been trying to read new magazines, issues from different countries - learning Dutch while reading L'Officiel Netherlands for instance - but every time I open a new one I'm always disappointed. I've been a faithful reader a Vogue Paris for something like 7 years now, and even thought time to time I disliked the issue - too many naked women and too much trash fashion in Carine Roitfeld last issues for me - I always enjoyed the prettiness of this magazine. Vogue Paris is all about a flawless editorial, a perfect construction and an elegant sense of fashion. The fashion editorials, the make up section, the staging of accessories, even the adverts are put in a way to make out of this magazine pure prettiness and elegance, in the French Style. 

So yes, as I told you I found myself cheating on Vogue Paris since three months maybe. I was used to read L'Officiel Paris, but it is not as good as it used to be and I decided to stop purchasing it, too disappointed to spend 4,90€ on an issue I won't read. However I never really looked at Vogue from other countries. Just out of laziness maybe, or because I loved my routine. Anyway. Last September I was at the airport waiting for my flight which would bring me back home for a week. I didn't have any book with me, neither any magazine, and I wanted to read something. So I went to the duty free shop and purchased the famous Vogue U.S September Issue. You know, what is considers as the Graal of fashion magazines. I couldn't wait more. After having spent 13€ on it - this is not a joke - I sat and opened it. I had to wait for page 110 to finally get a summary. I didn't think the "800 pages of fashion" was actually 700 pages of adverts. Anyway, I stopped being negative and went through it. I won't relate my whole experience, let's summarize it: all that I saw was adverts - not even pretty ones, it is about high and low brands which to me doesn't make any sense since 99% of the stuffs staged in Vogue are not affordable - and some pages of beauty and two fashion editorials. What a disappointment my friend. This is the Graal, really? To me, as a faithful reader of Vogue Paris, I was shocked. The edition wasn't even pretty, the adverts neither, it wasn't aesthetic, it wasn't pretty, it was all about adverts - so money of course - and articles were lost within them. 

Another time I decided to go through Vogue UK while waiting at the airport. But after 10 pages I knew I wouldn't buy it. And I finally understood that Vogue Paris was unique. Nothing can really compare to this elegance, this chic simplicity and the articles - so nice to read! Fashion becomes literature in Vogue Paris. So instead of purchasing new magazines, I just read every issue of Vogue Paris to death, for a month, and only leave behind one issue when I know the new one is about to come my way. Parisian do it best this time. 

xo

Amy

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November favorite: Céline belt bag

Recently I've spent a lot of time trying - pay attention to the word "trying" - to relax from university and to take some moment sin the day to think about something else than studying. One of my favorite thing to do besides eating cookies and watching trash tv is to read fashion magazines. Everything is so beautiful on those pair glazed pages. The outfits, the models, the accessories, the bags, how all of this is staged together, you cannot help but relax and dream about yourself in those dresses and with those bags. And so my obsession with beautiful handbags never stop growing, and I discover more and more bags to fall in love with. The latter one is the Céline Belt Bag. Isn't it flawless? The perfect bag for a student moreover... Big enough to put your mess and your laptop, practical, and so pretty. Let's do a quick review of this new love story. 

Céline is an incredible brand. It is all about elegance, discreet femininity, purity, simple chic. Céline is the brand of the active woman, always busy but still paying attention to her appearance even though she knows that less is more. Céline bags just follow the rules of the brand. Elegant but simple, but always original. You'll never find another brand creating bags as Céline does. The shape, the details, everything is an invention, every element of the bag make out of it something unique and elegant. The Belt Bag is all of it. The shape and the "belt" make out of one of a kind, an elegant handbag which is also practical with its big central pocket and its on the shoulder strap. Just another perfect bag to fall in love with. 

xo

Amy

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Cookies

I am all about food those times. Eating sugary treats seems to be the solution to student anxiety, so here I come, cookies and cupcakes! Scones and layer cakes! Well, I'm a little bit obsessed with bakery those times, the biggest fan of Bake Off, the one who goes to the bakery to study, the one who will be diabetic and obese in two weeks if I don't stop it now! Well, eating cake is nice, but expensive in the end, and it is done by yourself it is always better. So today I'm sharing with you the recipe to bake the best soft chocolate chip cookies! Get your stomach ready.

Ingredients:

95 grammes of butter

90 grammes of sugar

1 egg150 grammes of flour

1/2 bag of baking powder

1 pinch of salt

50 grammes of chocolate chips

Let's get started!

First of all you'll need to mix the sugar with the soft butter (take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before getting started). Add the egg and mix it all. 

In another bowl mix the flour with the baking powder and the salt. When it is done, add the preparation to the other bowl, slowly, and keeping on mixing the flour with the sugar, egg and butter mix. 

Then, start working the pastry with your hands and form it into a big ball. Then take some part out of it and form little balls in the palms of your hands. 

Put it on a plate, and bake it in the oven at 180° for ten minutes!

Then it is done and you can just eat your homemade cookies until your stomach hurts!

Bon appétit!

xo

Amy

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Student anxiety

Going to university can be seen as a marvelous experience, and it is in so many ways, I have to be honest. You learn a lot, you got the chance to finally choose the studies that you love, you meet new people, you experience a new life, in a new town, in a new country, you just build yourself at university, modeling your young self to become the grown up you are craving to be. 

However, the path to your future is not always all cute and pink. It can be hard. You'll have a lot of work to do, a lot of stress, you'll have to accommodate yourself in this new life, and even though it is sometimes nice and interesting, it can also bring you down pretty quickly. I studied for three years at the University of Geneva, in Switzerland. Three years that were quite perfect. Of course, there was a lot of stress with the assignments, the exams, everything was so brand new for me. But at least I was at home, I knew that if I had a bad day I could just go talk to my mum or have a sleepover at my boyfriend's family house. Yet this year I'm far from home. Amsterdam is a nice place, don't misunderstand me. It is a lovely town, with so many things to see, so many things to do, so many people to meet. Yet sometimes it is not enough to make you forget the rest of it. 

What's the rest of it? It is all the stress and the weird feelings you have to deal with when you're far from home and dealing with an intense study program. In this post I just would like to talk about student anxiety, and how much I felt like nobody cared for it. Once I went to see one of my teacher to tell him that I might leave the class earlier because I felt really bad and anxious and was afraid I couldn't take it today. He juste answered, "ok, but if you leave before 7 (the class was from 4 to 8) you'll have to do another assignment to apologize for your absence. I was shocked. Really, this is how you deal with that? I thought you were a smart man, studying Humanities and pretending to be open minded. So of course I stayed until 8 and sealed with my anxiety for 4 hours. Every morning waking up has been a complete nightmare for several days, not to say weeks. I felt like the weight of the world was on my chest, not wanting to let me breath, not wanting to let me feel good. 

I'm not saying here that I have any solution, because as I'm writing to you right now I feel like I will have to go back to work right after, even if I think I need a trash tele break for 30 minutes just to calm down and enjoy a little bit more my studies. But I'll just say one more thing to you: try your best to get yourself organized in order to enjoy your studies. Dealing with a tone of work can sometimes be a question of organization, sometimes it can be about working on yourself, yet whatever it is, don't be afraid to tell someone how much your studies weight on you. I know how it does feel, and how hard it is to deal with that everyday, but sometimes just to find the right person to talk to can make a change, so don't be ashamed, you're far from being alone. 

xo

Amy

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Portrait of Marthes, Boldini

Painting did always had a lot of importance to me. I always did enjoy looking at an art world for hours and trying to understand the aim of the artist, trying to grasp the meaning which is sometimes hidden, or even sometimes trying to appreciate something that I didn't like, trying to understand why I didn't like it. Art is of course subjective, everybody, with an art historian background or not, is able to give a critic, to express his feelings about an art piece. Like I did, some weeks ago, telling you my love for this Monet painting, being subjective and not looking for any agreement on what I stated. So today I would like to claim my love for another art work, the Portrait of Marthe by the Italian painter Giovanni Boldini. To be honest, I can't remember how I did discover this painting. It was last year, and no matter how I did discover Bolding I remember as soon as I saw some of his works I knew he would become one of my favorite artist. 

I've always been one of those landscape lovers, not that much into people, whether it was in real life or in painting, I felt more at ease with nature than society. However, Giovanni Bolding learned me how to love people - at least on canvas - with his elegant, mysterious, attractive creature. He loved to represent the stars of his times - he was a painter in Paris at the start of the 20th century - the singers, the ballet dancers, the actresses, all even more beautiful than the others. Elegance is the best word to qualify his work. Boldini can fix in a painting the beauty and the natural of those women, dressed like we wish we could still dress, elegant, only letting us know a little bit about themselves, letting us pondering on this question: "Who is she?". The painter doesn't give any answer intentionally. It is up to us to dive into his paintings and try to understand those women, try to understand where this natural elegance comes from, try to understand how we can fall in love with a painting. 

xo

Amy

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Love letter

Dear beloved,

    I wanted to write you this letter because I think that sometimes I tend to forget to tell you what I feel and how much you matter for me. So I thought to write it down would be the best way to say it all.

    I met you almost three years ago now, time flies by your side. I can't believe it already has been three years since we met at this bus stop, three years since I thought "Wow, this man looks nice and he's also handsome", and I did blush hidden into my scarf when you talked to me. It seems so far away but still so close. But three years went on, and now we are together in Amsterdam, trying to deal with our news lives, trying to learn how to do things right. Sometimes I can't help but wonder, "Why does he stay with me? I do not deserve him". You do not talk that much, but sometimes I can read in your eyes and I feel fine. 

    Yet I know for sure what I will never walk away from you. You are the kindest, the smartest, the funniest, the more talented, the coolest, the most amazing man I have ever met in my life, and I know that I'm the luckiest girl on earth. I admire you for what you do, for your determination in your work, for your passion for your music, for your generosity, the way you can calm me down when I feel like everything is falling apart. I do not address you all of those compliments only because I love you as my boyfriend, but also because already when we were just friends I knew you were an amazing person. The kind of person you only meet once in your life and you should never let go. 

   I know we had some hard times, and I admire how you stayed by my side even in the roughest moments. I'm looking forward to create much more memories by your side, to live much more experiences, to plan many more projects with you. I know, it isn't always that easy. But I love you, even if I maybe don't say that enough. I do. You matter to me. I wanted you to know that, I wanted you to remind you how important you are to me. I hope you know, even though I try to show it to you as much as I can, I thought I would write it down in a love letter.

    I love you, you know that? And I don't think I will ever stop. 

Amy

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Sweater weather

It is this time of the year again. Weather is getting colder, wind is blowing, rain is falling, and all we want to do is stay warm at home, afraid of Winter which is just around the corner. But since life does not leave us the chance to stay at home every day that it is cold outside, we have to wear layers and layers of clothes and go out. And then the sweater weather season starts. I'm quite glad about it actually. Sweaters are comfy, you don't need to do too much effort to style them, just throw it on, jeans at the bottom, a big scarf, a coat and nice sneakers and you're done. 

Some months ago I stumbled upon the perfect sweater. If you like luxury garments, too comfy to be true, if you like irony in elegance, if you like Jurassic Park - I'm not even kidding - , you'll love it. The t-rex Coach knitted sweater. This is perfect the illustration of fashion being not serious, of fashion being childish, of fashion being just wearable and not talking itself too seriously. Coach likes to play with garments, patches all over their coats, funny patterns on their sweaters and jackets, they are not afraid to be light and careless in a fashion world full of prejudices and pride - sounds like Jane Austen, right? I know, I'm a bit too much of a fan. So let's just be careless but chic this winter, and go fight the cold weather with a t-rex on our side!

Picture credit: Arden Rose's Instagram. 

xo

Amy

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