Thoughts on getting things done (or not getting them done)

Today I woke up at 9.30 am. Then I had a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie and an M&M chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. I starred at my books but picked up my computer instead and aimlessly surfed the internet for 1.5 hours. And now here I am. You might think this is purely a description of my day so far (as, I understand, is something people do on blogs sometimes). But no, this is me describing how a day, so full of promises at 6.50 am this morning when husband woke up, quickly turned into something, shall we say, less desirable. My aim is to wake up with A, have breakfast with him, spend some quite time together, and then start my day of studying (without any procrastination such as instagramming). This is the goal. Now I don’t always stay in bed until 9.30, I usually manage to get up at about 8-8.30, then have breakfast (usually something more nutritious than a cookie) and then I start to get things done (and by this I mean, slowly read or write an article whilst I do other things such as instagram). So I guess you could say today was particularly bad. My question though – how does it get this bad? I know I hate it, so why do I let it happen? Do I really need to sleep 9-10 hours a night? Could that possible be normal for a 25 year old? Because I really do believe it all boils down to my sleeping habits. On the rare occasions that I DO get up “early”, good things usually follow. Contrary, when I don’t get up until late, the day easily takes a wrong turn and that’s when cookies and internet and PJs all day happen.

I was hoping this year would be different. I was starting to believe this year would be different. It’s my final year. My Master year. The important year. But I freeze when I get overwhelmed. When I think about other things in life that I consider more important than my studies. When I feel lonely or useless (which I can’t help feeling sometimes, regardless of the love family and friends shower me with).

I guess I think too much. Analyze things too much. Feel too much. Wonder too much. Worry too much.

How do you “get yourself together”? How do you “just do it”? Or is it normal to have these kind of days ever so often?

Rich and creamy chocolate cake

 Let me tell you, this cake, which I made for husband’s 25th Birthday Party, was a huge hit. For all us chocolate lovers it tasted like heaven. It’s really easy to make, but it took some time to assemble, so if you make it set aside half a day! Here is the recipe, if you’d like to try..

Sponge cake:

2 dl milk

4 tbs cacao powder

1 dl sugar

125 g butter

1,5 dl sugar

2 eggs

4 dl plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

Turn the oven to 175 C. Stir milk, cacao powder and sugar in a saucepan and bring to boil. Let it cool. Beat the butter and the rest of the sugar soft. Add one egg at a time, mix well. Then add the four and baking powder into the batter, and also the chocolate “sauce”. Pour the batter into a greased baking tin and bake in the lower part of the oven for about 40 mins. Let it cool completely. This recipe makes one chocolate sponge cake. I doubled the recipe and made two to make it higher.

Chocolate butter cream icing:

175 g good quality dark chocolate (70%)

225 g butter (at room temperature)

1 tbs milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

250 g icing sugar

Melt the chocolate and leave to cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, milk, vanilla and icing sugar until smooth. This can take several minutes with an electrical hand mixer. Add the melted chocolate and beat again until thick and creamy. The quantities are for one sponge cake. If you want to make two, and have a higher cake (like in the picture), double the measurements.

When both sponge cake and icing are done, simply cut the sponge cake in half and spread the icing onto it (the cake in the picture has three layers). Then, cover the top and sides with more icing and decorate if you wish (I just made little swirls with the spatula).

I hope you like it!

Organizing made beautiful

photo via Glitter and Pearls

Here in Sweden it’s almost impossible to find good stationery stores with pretty pens, cards, notebooks, planners, diaries and the likes. I read this inspiring post by Gaby from The Vault Files and I really wish there was somewhere to get hold of beauties like this in Sweden. If anyone happens to know about any good stationery store in Sweden (Stockholm preferably), or knows of a store that provides international shipping, please let me know!

Happy Wednesday!

In my opinion, a beautiful bouquet of flowers can brighten the gloomiest of days. These tulips are keeping me happy and motivated at the moment :) How about you?

The best white bread you’ll ever have

This bread is the best for two reasons. 1, it tastes heavenly and 2, it’s super duper easy to make (I’ll throw in a 3rd and that’s that it’s one of the prettiest breads I’ve seen, if bread can be pretty…)

Below is the recipe, if you’d like to try and make them…

5 dl lukewarm water (37 degrees C)

1 dl milk

25 g fresh yeast

2 tsp salt + 1 tbs honey

12 1/2 dl flour

Mix water and milk together. Crumble the fresh yeast into a large bowl and add salt, honey and most of the “milk water”. Stirr with a wooden spoon till yeast has dissolved completely and then add the rest of the milk water. Last, add the flour and mix. The dough should be rather lose. Cover the dough and leave it to rise for 1-1 1/2 hours. Preheat the oven to 240-250 degrees C. Grease or line two large baking trays. Sprinkle some flour unto the work surface and tip the dough onto it. Make sure not to kneed the dough! You’ll want all the gorgeous “rise bubbles” to stay.. Sprinkle some more flour over the dough and then carefully pat the whole piece of dough into an irregular rectangle. Then, quickly cut the dough into 6-7 cm wides “strips”. Then divide each strip into 2-3 parts. It doesn’t matter if the pieces aren’t even – it will only add to the prettiness of the bread. Then, move the individual pieces of bread to the tray, and immediately bake in the middle of the oven (they don’t need to rise a second time) for 17-20 minutes. Leave to cool without covering for an extra crusty crust :)

Hope you like them!