Author: The Slow Pace

Christmas cards 2017

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They are here! Our Christmas Cards 2017 ! Ok, let’s not get carried away by enthusiasm because this year there’s no DIY. Even though we managed to create our very own Christmas crown, this year we simply didn’t find the time to DIY our Christmas cards. Why? Because #life. While we wanted to show you a Pinterest worthy DIY, we didn’t have time to prepare it. The truth is that as much as we plan things, sometimes we can’t do it all. I felt really bad because it’s something I love to do and, after 16 years together, I believe I have infected my wife with my histrionic Christmas spirit, but this year I couldn’t make it. Long hours at the office, a nightmare that involves a marathon through German bureaucracy pretty similar to The twelve tasks of Asterix and our firm commitment to our fitness routine made it impossible. Well, all that and the last two seasons of Grey’s Anatomy. We procrastinate too, that’s the truth. We are humans and we are addicted to …

Thinking about Christmas presents?

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So, have you thought about Christmas presents or do you leave them for a little bit of last minute paranoia fun? We usually gravitate towards the latter, but this year we’ve been very good and we’ve already bought a few gifts for friends and family.  Thanks, Black Friday deals. But do you know what we would never choose as a present? A perfume.  It’s something so personal, however just in the UK 49% of all perfume sales take place in November and December. Perfumes are a very popular Christmas present but we still don’t know how you can get the scent right, even for someone you love and know very well… Maybe the fact that one out of two commercials during the months of November and December is dedicated to some kind of perfume has something to do with that huge increase in sales? By the way, we love how brands tie perfumes to ideals and types of people. It’s fascinating. I could never be a Dolce & Gabbana perfume girl, because I will never identify myself …

DIY Advent crown

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As we told you in our latest post, we are embracing German Advent to the max and one of the most important traditions is advent crowns or wreaths. Each house has its own and every Advent Sunday you are suppose to light one candle.  We love it because it’s a very special way of counting down the days left to visit our families, it’s beautiful and the light of the candles makes our living room extra cosy. For the past six years we’ve been buying our Advent crowns because, come the end of November, every vendor at the flowers market starts displaying a wonderful range of Advent crowns, and they are so beautiful that it’s’ difficult to choose one but impossible not to buy one! However, this year we decided to make our very own crown. And I don’t think we will ever buy one again! The process was so fun! We spent more than an hour choosing the materials in different shops. Since making Advent crowns and wreaths is so popular here, there’s an …

Cheesecake brownies or the celebration of cultural mixing

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It’s almost our favourite time of the year in Germany: Advent. This means that the Christmas markets are opening, cities turn into a wonderful twinkling fairy tale and it’s time for lots and lots of baking. Before moving to Germany, Advent meant nothing to us, well maybe never ending masses and nuns telling kids that Christmas was not about presents and big meals, and Christmas preparations started a couple of weeks before Christmas Eve. However, the German Advent has stolen our hearts and become our favourite part of the German culture. Now the best part of Christmas is actually Advent and we start celebrating Christmas related everything as soon as November comes to an end. We are not the biggest fans of German culture, to be honest. We miss Spain, we love our background and we hardly incorporate any German customs into our everyday life. However, we have to admit that in Advent we embrace almost every German tradition and really enjoy this wonderful time of the year. Well, we put up the Christmas tree …

Get organized!

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Lately we’ve been stuck at work for long, long, long hours, each of us working in different proyects and basically girlbossing the hell out of our jobs. That got me thinking that, while I always find lots of posts online about tips for freelance workers and cool bloggers, I hardly come across any corporate job/long hours at a sad desk/I can’t stand my coworkers organizational tips posts. And since we’ve been feeling on fire workwise, we’ve put together some clues, hints and suggestions for those of you who work in an office, because maybe yout job is not very flashy but it’s surely necessary for the correct development of our society.  Normal people, the world needs us. We matter. Get a useful, pragmatic, cut to the chase paper calendar or diary. Nowadays there are lots of beautiful, Instagram worthy calendars, but my advice is: buy one that is simple, has plenty of space to write and take notes and doesn’t distract you. The point of a good calendar is to keep you focused, not distract …

Copenhagen: our 10 favourites

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Now that we are putting the finishing touches in our next trip, here you have the last post about our recent stay in Copenhagen. These are the 10 things that we recommend every time someone asks about tips on this gorgeous city. Our musts. Our favourites. 1. Tea and/or coffee at Cafe Norden. We’ve mentioned this gorgeous café several times and that’s because it’s cosy, cosmopolitan and has a gorgeous understated fashionable clientele that makes it perfect to people watch. Besides, their coffee, ginger and lemon tea and chai latte are delicious. And their cinnamon buns won our personal “best cinnamon bun in CPH” contest. The location is perfect, central and just in front of the luxurious department store Illum.   2. Walk by the water: whether the weather is sunny and bright or grey and foggy, a walk along the water is mandatory. There’s nothing as relaxing as a slow walk along the canals and the inner bay. We’ve been going to CPH frequently for the past 5 years and this area has improved …

Liquid lipsticks for Autumn

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Lipstick is the one piece of makeup that symbolizes aging for me. You can get away with everything else but, lipstick? The bastard ends up all over your face thanks to those little lines around your mouth and makes you look like the joker on a bad day. But at the same time, the older you get, the more you need a little bit of lipstick to cheer up your face. In my mind aging is really connected to lipstick. When I was a teenager I was all about eye shadows (and I still am, you just have to see my eye shadow palette collection…) but I wouldn’t care for lipstick that much. I only wanted to match my eye shadow to my clothes (oh, thank God there was no social media back then!) But my nonna, my mum and my great aunt were all about lipstick. My nonna would wear red lipstick every single day, my mum has always been a fan of pink shades and my aunt was a visionary and reached for …

Lamb koftas with cauliflower rice salad

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Today we had another post planned but, to be honest, we got caught up in the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy this weekend and when we tried to take the pictures we had planned for today there wasn’t enough light. So… here you have the recipe that we had prepared for Thursday. A recipe that is perfect for people who love TV marathons, crawling up in the sofa and procrastination. Sometimes you just need a quick fix and just as this post has sorted out today’s publication, this recipe can sort out your dinners or lunches when you don’t have a lot of time to cook but you still want something delicious and good for you. In fact this is a mix of two recipes we found in the book Chef on a diet. Fear not, the book has nothing to do with bland, boiled vegetables and boring, colourless food. Quite the opposite. It has lots of delicious, spicy, mouth-watering food. And every recipe in the book is great for you if, like us, you …

Chocolate, orange and olive oil cake

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Somehow Winter has arrived. Yes, I know there’s a lot of Autumn left but the last few days have felt like Winter. Temperatures have dropped, the terrible North Sea wind is back making our ears and noses little ice blocks and our fire place is full with candles again. So all we can do is bundle up and enjoy warm cups of coffee with a piece of cake. It sounds boring and oh so cliché but the comfort that a cup of coffee and a piece of cake bring in these long, dark afternoons is exactly what makes this season bearable. These days we miss Spain so very much, but we also like to make the most of the characteristic cosy German atmosphere, hence the candles in the fire place and the coffee and cake in the afternoon. In this cake, our take on a recipe we found in this book, we’ve used the best of both worlds: extra virgin olive oil and oranges from Spain and dark chocolate made in Bremen. You will need: …

A walk in Vesterbro

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We shared our thoughts about Vesterbro, the hippest area of Copenhagen, a couple of years ago after our first visit. Last month, during our latest stay in Copenhagen, we came back and revisit this cool district and discover new favourites. Vesterbro is full of cafes and restaurants that are a magnet for those in search of the perfect Instagram snap, but it also oozes local authenticity. Vesterbro is a strange mixture. One the one side you have those typical bad neighbourhood vibes, even more the further you walk away from the city center, but on the other side you can visit some of the most cosmopolitan spots in Copenhagen. One of them is Værnedamsvej, a narrow side street that hosts cool shops like Aesop or Samsoe & Samsoe (check their cashmere sweaters!), boutique bakeries, wine shops and one of the most famous cafés in Copenhagen: Granola. Of course this was our first stop. A nice cup of coffee warmed our hands on that beautiful, crisp Autumn day. The vintage atmosphere is beautiful, the gorgeous light and …