fall candles

 

It might be close to winter now.. Especially not that it's December 1st. But this one fall post needs to be on my blog. I have watched countless Youtubers rave about the Bath & Body Works fall candles for years and years and now I finally got my hands on them. I took advantage of my family from the US visiting in October. I know they always have some spare room in their luggage on their way to Austria so I filled up that space with candles. The pure joy I felt when my aunt handed me a box of fall greatness is hard to put into words. Let's see what I got and how I liked it. Afterall it is hard to decide on a scent online.

homemade granola

Let's explore the healthy side of things before I lose myself in Christmas cookie recepies. I can't be the only one who absolutely hates the cold but lives for anything Christmas related.
Ok, take a deep breath. It's not December yet and therefore I am not allowed to talk about the best holiday of the year.
Focus! Healthy. Things that are good for you. Breakfast. Granola! Can anyone tell me why the cereal you can buy is always covered in sugar? Don't get me wrong, I do like things sweet but sugar as second or sometimes even first ingredient just annoys me. I am trying to - at least sometimes - eat healthy. So instead of reaching for bread with whatever every day I'll have granola with fruit and yoghurt for breakfast. But I haven't found one that doesn't seem to be covered in sweetener. Sometimes there is no sugar at all but then I feel like it tastes like nothing. In the end I decided to consult Pinterest. I almost got lost in ingredients I have never heard of and have no idea where to find but which are supposed to be oh so very healthy and good for you.

the Holy Grail of hot chocolate

Generally I am not a big fan of chocolate in general but this dark hot chocolate is amazing!

Yesterday I passed a Lindt shop and went in just to have a look at all the Christmassy stuff. Usually walking in a shop selling nothing but chocolate is not very dangerous because I am simply not that much into chocolate. After a while I caught myself looking for this really good drinking-chocolate I had last year which my boyfriend told me was from Zotter. Ooops…

But what I found was just as good if not better. A while ago my boyfriend told me a mythical story about a hot chocolate he had in Italy that was so extra chocolaty and so thick in consistency, he almost couldn’t drink it. Since then I always wanted to try that exact one. I don’t like the common hot chocolate that consists of milk and whole milk chocolate powder. So this unbelievable chocolaty dark hot chocolate sounded amazing.

Yesterday I found something that came very close to what I was looking for. I started with heating 100ml milk and put the powder of the package in. Then I cooked it until it had the desired consistency. Depending on how thick you like your hot chocolate you could add more milk or don’t heat it as long. But I took my time heating until it was super creamy and yummy.

And oh my god, I have to tell you I was in chocolate heaven! I made a small cup of wonderful thick and creamy dark hot chocolate that was perfection. When I was half through I added some cinnamon and found the Holy Grail.

I am sure this is not for everyone but I am in love.

I give in.. It's fall.

This year summer came and left almost unnoticed - at least where I live it did. It was cold, rainy and just not summer at all. Yes, we had a few very warm days but that was by far not enough. I didn’t go on vacation anywhere this year so I couldn’t even enjoy a full week of summer somewhere else.

This beeing said, I guess it is understandable that I denied that fall was around the corner as long as I possibly could. My mind didn’t even give in after wearing a scarf and a fall jacket for a week. I was born in the wrong country. ;)

What did it for me though was going into Depot to shop for a make-up mirror. For those who don’t know, Depot is one of the cutest home décor shops I have ever been to. And there it was. Fall! The entire shop screamed fall from every possible angle in every possible way. The fall décor was so adorable that all of the sudden I got really excited about the seasons changing. Finally! I bought some décor stuff and – of course - no make-up mirror and rushed home to give my apartment a fall makeover.

For this vase I only had to buy artificial apples and popcorn. The candle is made out of plastic and can be lit by a switch at the bottom to get a burning effect. I tied a ribbon around the Vase to complete the look and to make it less "naked looking" at the top.

 

I also put an artificial apple in another vase with some moss and other stuff that was in a potpourri mix I bought from Depot. The stones at the bottom were in the vase before with some spring déco stuff so I just left them there.

 

Last but not least I brought a piece of forest into my living room. I used the leftovers from the potpourri mix and just had to arrange them.