Last minute snack

We probably have all been in the situation: It's weekend, stores may be closed but you get a call from friends or family that like to come over.
Do I have anything to serve as a snack?
Home made or fresh baked goods are the most popular but you're not always prepared for that.

From now on, you will.
Make sure your freezer always provides puffy pastry (bladerdeeg), grated cheese, ground beef and have an egg, salt, pepper, sesame seed and/or poppy seed in stock.

Let's get started!



First of all preheat your oven at 220 degrees and lay out a few slices of the pastry to get on room temperature.




Slice 'm up, lay them out on a baking tray coverd with baking paper and cover the top with some egg. The egg is to let your topping stick and to let your snack have some more color after baking.




Sprinkle your chosen topping. I have the sesame and poppy seed combined with some coarse salt and the others are topped with grated cheese.

Option two!



Lay out the pastry (sticky side up) and cover about half of it with the cheese and some pepper (optionally).




Cover one side with some egg, fold and close by the use of a fork. This way the pastry will stick together and it also looks neat, doesn't it?




Cut up into smaller pieces.




Again, cover the top with some egg and the leftover cheese.
Bake for about 20 minutes and you are done!

Puffy pastry is ideal to have in stock for these kind of 'events'. You can fill or cover it with anything you like and it's probably the easiest thing to do.
Have a good weekend and don't forget to stock up your freezer.

Love,
Noes

Memory jar

I guess we can say that I am one of those people that collects. I like keeping things that belong to good memories but as you can imagine that results into a box full of cards, business cards, holiday maps, cinema- and concert tickets.
Every once in a while I go through the entire box to see everything and to try to get some order instead of a box full of chaos, order that of course... never lasts.

To get at least a few things in 'order' and at the same time at display, I made a memory jar.

Step 1. Get a jar that is high enough for all the tickets to fit.

Step 2. Sort out everything you have and make a selection for the memory jar. I decided on cinema-, concert/festival- and sight seeing tickets.

Step 3. Fill the jar in a way so that your favorite things are at display and find a good place for it in your home.

This may be the most easy DIY you can imagine but I still love the idea.
Let's make some more memories!

Love,
Noes

Bloggers Masterclass

Thanks to the Dutch Grazia magazine I had the opportunity to participate in a bloggers masterclass today.
Bloggers Sabrina of afterDRK and Anna of NSMBL had many smart and fun facts to share.

For example, did you ever consider adjusting your blogs name so that it's high in alphabetical order? Apparently I did very well by calling my blog According To Noes.
Since it starts with the A, it will always be very high up in any list and online search results and therefore will probably have more pageviews than a blog starting with a character lower in the alphabet. It never really occured to me but luckily I chose well.
Smart of you ladies, very smart!

They also addressed practical but smart tips for photography, advertisement, cooperation with others and so on.

Even though the morning was already great as it was, Grazia had arranged fabulous macarons, cupcakes and gift bags. Thank you Grazia!

The giftbag included the latest Grazia issue, windows 8 samples, a bracelet by Nikki for dance 4 life, a Blond Amsterdam notebook, OPI nailpolish and the cutest lipstick USB-stick.

Thank you Grazia, Sabrina, Anna and Polle for all the fun stories, great tips and tricks and above all a fun, well spend saterday morning!

Love,
Noes

Porcelain painting

For Christmas I already made a few personal gifts using porcelain paint on mugs. Since those turned out to be a great success, I decided to take my chances and make some more.

The first plate I made, this one, had such positive responses that I continued with another fun saying and added some color...

And made a duo of cake plates upon request for a friend.

Since there were a present for a birthday I wrapped them up According To Noes style and off they went. Fingers crossed that the birthday girl will like them!

What will be next?

Love,

Noes

Copycat

A new year, you want to make a fresh start and with that comes a new look or rather a whole new wardrobe.
Unfortunately, not everyone has a celebrity sized budget but we would still like to look that way.

What to do?
It's copycat time...

Like Emma's look?
Shopping a similar look was never this easy. Zara is offering many discounts at this moment and the beautiful beige coat as well as the black and glitter jumper are part of it. Finish this look with your favorite black jeans, ballerina's or sneakers and RayBan Wayfarer sunglasses. A cool and comfortable look at a great budget!

Not exactly your style?
What about SJP...

Your average workday or a night on the town, SJP knows what to wear.
Continue your shopping spree at Zara for this great leather jacket. Sarah chooses for her white Converse Allstars while running some errants but you can also pair it up with black leather boots or pretty pumps.
A sweeter look consists of a white lace blouse with ruching (also Zara), big hair and soft make-up. A great example for a pale pink lipstick for a budget look is 'Darling' by Gosh.

As you can see you don't have to be a celebrity to look like one and you don't need their creditcard (although it would be nice).

Love,
Noes

Happy New Year!

I wish everyone the very best for 2013!

May it be a year with lots of love, laughter, baking and fun DIY's!

Love,
Noes

Christmas is: Home made desert

With Christmas there are many possibillities to celebrate at restaurants but how good is home made food!
I especially agree on this when it comes to desert.
This year I made tiramisu and pear-cherry crumble.

 

Both are easy to make, but since the crumble was something different I present you the recipe:

- Sliced up 3 pears and add 100 grams of cherries
- Mix in 50 grams of cane sugar
- Divide the mixture over 6 small baking pans
- Make a dough out of 200 grams of cane sugar, 200 grams of butter and 200 grams of plain flour
- Add to the top and bake for 45 minutes at 190 degrees

Super easy but so delicious, enjoy!

Love,
Noes

Christmas is: DIY presents

Fun to make and fun to get, a personalised present for Christmas.
Lately I have been wanting to try out porcelain paint and that idea let to some more presents to hand out.

For mom

 

 

 

 

For dad

 

 

 

For my sister Anouk

 

 

 

 

For my sister Esther

 

 

 

The only things you need: porcelain paint, a tiny brush, something to paint on, patience and an oven.
There are many colors paint available and you can paint on any porcelain or ceramic surface. According To Noes tableware here we come?

 

Love,
Noes

Christmas is: wrapping presents extra special

One of the most fun things of Christmas is wrapping the presents you bought for others. Luckely I had some practice before!
For instance you can use labels (the oldskool brown ones of handmade), ribbon, string, masking tape and spice up the brown paper with fun stamps.

 

Writing a fun line on the labels usually does the trick too, let your guests be curious: who's getting that pretty present?
And last but not least, Christmas preperations are so much fun.

Happy holidays!

Love,
Noes

Cake stand

It happens more than once in a while. You are looking for that one thing: the perfect jeans, those exact shoes you had seen online, furniture that's all in the same color range..
It is exactly then that you can do whatever you want, try so hard but you won't find it.
Don't worry, you really are not the only one.
For the last couple of weeks I have been looking for new cake stands. I didn't even have one exact idea in my head but still, I could hardly find any!
And the rare ones I did find where only big enough for one cupcake or pretty but after a closer look crooked. Frustrating right?

So sometimes a girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do. I made one myself!

I bought a gorgeous plate and vase at the second hand store, gave then a good scrub and with a little imagination they became one piece.
Since the outcome is so fabulous, I don't intent to quit anytime soon.

Bring in the cake, 'cause we are ready for it!

Love,
Noes

Classic beauty

Sophia Loren, Rita Heyworth, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe... the definition of classic beauty.
Back in the days looking beautiful was quite different then it is now. It was all curves, winged eyeliner and lipstick. How great was that?

For one I embrace the vintage look with both arms, the classic way or with a slight twist. Get the look!

Hair
No curling, no straightening needed. Keep it natural. If you have natural curls the short curly bob like Marilyn is very cute or the 'Hollywood curl' like Rita Hayworth. Rather a style with straight hair? What about a classic Audrey Hepburn updo with short bangs or one of my personal favorites, the beehive. So gorgeous on Brigitte Bardot!

Make-up
Start with a great black mascara and (winged) eyeliner and top it off with a pop of color. Some red or pink lipstick is amazing but you can also show off with red nailpolish like Marilyn.

Fashion
The LBD is classic for a reason, add a little glitter or some pearls and rock the 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' look.
Already went all overboard on the hair and make-up? As you can see all of these women look gorgeous as well with a simple black turtle neck or fun flower print jeans.
And wait. Is Brigitte Bardot wearing a beanie there? With colder times at our door that fashion item is very much welcome.
Apart from that high waisted shorts and skirts are classic, cute and actually back in fashion again!

Accessories
Pearls, sprakly earrings, a little bit of leopard print and retro sunglasses. They are all so much fun but as you can see you can even look beautiful without too much fuss, keep it simple and draw the attention to one part of the look. Simplicity!

These ladies are not just classic beauties because the time of their fame makes it classic, they are because despite of any imperfections they were gorgeous and everyone thought they were. In my opinion, that state of mind could never hurt. I say: let's get that going again. Everyone is different and no one is perfect, exactly that's what makes beauty.

Inspired? Maybe this may be a fun new project for your Christmas of New Years look. Have fun!

Love,
Noes

Little things

Blogger Emily from Cupcakes and Cashmere can be an inspiration for many things. She has many DIY ideas, fashion and make-up tips and yummy recipes but today she inspired me with something else.
Regularly she posts a blog under the name of 'Five things'. In this blog she simply shows and names five things that make her happy.
And be honest, it really is that easy. Pretty flowers, something new after shopping, a good time with friends, your pet, a good meal, anything can make you happy.

Fifi Lapin

Her latest book is 'The wonderful world of Fifi Lapin: Style secrets of a furry fashionista'. How fun is that?
It's not in the regular book stores here but I found some possibilities for online shops so I'm secretly hoping this one will be under the Christmas tree for me.

Treasure hunt
This one is the catch of my latest 'treasure hunt' aka vintage shopping. I personally am not a fan of all vintage items but I do love furniture a lot. This one was hidden away, all kinds of Christmas decorations stacked on top of it, but that didn't keep me from finding it. Lovely isn't it?

Cutie
My sisters pet rabbit Nacho is the cutest thing in the world. Who wouldn't love a face like that?

Home made

Home made pizza. I love pizza as it is but as many things, home made is often the best. I'm baking one as we speak and the entire ground floor of the house smells so good, I'm hungry!

Hart of Dixie

A series with a fun storyline, starring Rachel Bilson and this guy... instant success! I started watching it because of Rachel Bilson, but when the character 'Wade' came into the picture, it was settled.
His name is Wilson Bethel, obviously he is drop dead gorgeous (you should see that crooked smile) and he's young! Not a George Clooney hot but 'Oh boy he's hot' .
Spoiler!
He and Zoe (Rachel Bilson) actually get together in the series at some point, yay! Don't we all wish we were her?

I hope you are all gonna make pizza, be nice to your pet and watch Hart of Dixie right away. Enjoy!

Love,
Noes