I love kitsch!

Gingerbread house à la Emma! What do you think?

I heart Mom and Dad

Since Prince Charming has been away in business this past week, I've had my wonderful parents come stay with me and baby S. Oh, how I love having them around, seeing them with my little girl and being able to show them some of my everyday life.

They arrived Saturday while P was still here. We picked them up at the airport (yes, I admit it was a relief to see that they a) made it to the airport in Gothenburg on time, b) got to take their bags on to the aircraft (stupid Wizzair and Ryanair for their idiotic rules concerning handbagage!) and c) weren't stopped by customs). I'm a worrier.. what can I say!? 

From the airport we went straight to the small village of Szentendre, where we enjoyed the classic goulash with beer, strolled around the souvenir shops and of course; went bananas at the christmas decoration shop! Love that place! I could literally spend hours and hours there, ooohing and aaahing over the glitz and glam. And finally I got to show it to Mom! 

Just gotta mention the dinner P cooked for us; wienerschnitzels so tender they melted in your mouth. And we topped it off with a bottle of the Amarone we bought on our trip to Italy this summer. Ahhh, la dolce vita! 

Sunday morning P, my dad and I went to the Széchenyi bath to soak. Not as shabby as it's rumour, I thought. It's a huge thermal bath, with both indoor and outdoor pools. We had a blast. They have a swirl pool, where they who enter it get swooshed around, lika a merry-go-round. I will never ever forget the image of my dad swishing by P and me, giving P a high five as he passed. He was like a teenager again. Heartwarming!

The rest of the week included shopping at the mall, a visit to the amazing Christmas fair at Vörösmarty Tér where we had some glühwein with high promille, taking baby S to the playground, having a delicious dinner at Café 57, checking out the Great Market hall and Vaci út with all it's souvenir shops, and a lot of window shopping for antiques...

When it was time for them to leave my heart broke... it was so hard to see them getting in to that taxi.. now I know how they feel every time S and I leave them. It got so quiet and empty here! Luckily we'll be together again in just a short month to celebrate Christmas.

In a New York State of mind

Don't you just love autumn!? Ah, if you happen to be in a country where it's 18 degrees C, so sunny you can bronze yourself and where you still can wear a dress without leggings without freezing your butt off - IN MID-OCTOBER, that is!!! I don't miss the Swedish autumn one bit. Not one bit. I laugh when I see the Swedish weather forecast. Laugh! Oh, the rain, ah the wind.

Really loving this darling weather, so I've been taking long walks with Selma. Thought I'd share some of the amazing views from around my hill. The view almost makes up for the steepness of that hill. Almost.

When I look down on this wonderful city with the green park of Margit Island, it's many bridges and tall buildings, I get a New York feeling. Almost.

Chick Flick Marathon

Poor baby S has had croup since Wednesday. Daytime she won't sleep anywhere else but in mama's arms. So what's mama supposed to do, trapped on the couch? Watch as many sugarcoated romantic flicks as she possibly can stand! Yihoo! By now I've gotten through 'Dear John' and 'Remember me'. Both real tear jerkers I tell you!

Baby steps

Hi y'all! Why are parents so obsessed with getting their baby to walk!? Hey - I'm not saying I'm any better! I keep placing baby S on her feet, part begging, part threatening her in order to make her take those damned first steps.. I mean, the baby is eventually gonna walk. All by herself. All babies learn how to walk. Sooner or later. So what's the big fuss about? Three weeks ago baby S suddenly took five steps. Just like that. And never did it since. It was like she knew how bad we wanted it. Such a tease.. She would just look at me, begging her to walk, smile a mischievous smile and slowly sit down and start to crawl instead. Until yesterday. She just started walking towards daddy. Stepping up with confidence, 7, 8, 9, 10 steps. Maybe this was the breakthrough. And from now on we will never be able to fully relax again. What the heck were we thinking!?

Now I will go back to writing a wedding toast for one of my dearest friends who's getting married this Saturday. Hooray!!

I believe in..

.. making every day count. I really try to live by it. Then again, since one of my favourite things to do is chill out at home, making every day count comes easy to me. ;) Jokes aside, I've had a happening week! On Thursday for instance, I was at the playground with my friend Sandra and her adorable girls. We had coffee at my place afterwards. And on Friday we went to Margit Island for a great day by the pool! Baby S absolutely loves to go swimming in the pool. She tries to swim, kicking and waving her arms in a frenzy! So cute! Sunday we went to Sandra & Karsten for a BBQ, we had a great time! Yesterday I had the lovely ladies from our "playgroup" over for a coffee & chat with the kids. Great times! The older kids were running around the apt, chased by an "awful monster"(no, not me), the little ones were on the floor, playing and doing babystuff. We had some cake from the fantastic and famous bakery down my street, the"Daubner". Chocolate & blueberry soufflé on chocolate cake. YUMMIE! It's so nice to get together with this group of ladies, I really enjoy sipping coffee and talking about everything.

Also, I've been catching up with some of my dearest friends.. ever since I got pregnant I've been MIA, and I really feel bad about it. I just can't seem to find the time or the right moment to sit down and make those calls. There really are no excuses, but I hope they still like me enough to not call off our friendship, even though I suck at keeping in touch right now. Well, in the past few days I've talked to no less than four of those dear friends! I feel so good about this! Talking to them really gave me a much needed energy boost! One of my besties is getting married soon! So happy for her! And another one is expecting her third child in only a few weeks. So exciting!

Today I took S for a walk, and stopped by our mall to do some grocery shopping. After that we've been mostly doing everyday stuff.. oh, there's a knock on the door - hold on!

It was the german lady upstairs. I've been taking care of her cat while she was out of town, and now she had bought Selma a super cute swimsuit to thank me for the help. So sweet!

Daily update

Alright.. since this blog is about me keeping a diary so I'll have some memories stored for when I get old.. I will make a daily update.. I always buy new diaries, thinking this time it will be different.. this time I will keep a journal of every single day.. write down small stuff  like the weather and important stuff like my baby's first steps.. and it always ends the same. I will write for a few days and then get bored and forget about it. And I'll feel bad for not writing. So, I thought that maybe a little pressure from the public is what I need.. If I can at least pretend that I have a few followers out there (hi Mom) who'd be disappointed if I went MIA, well then maybe I will keep it up.

Yesterday was a great Sunday. P and I were invited to our friends house for a BBQ. Nice red meat went right down my tummy.. yummm!! I can tell you, it's almost impossible to find good red meat here in Budapest. A nice juicy steak.. forget it Barbie! So we have desperately been trying to find a butcher somewhere who sells some tender meat and not just shoe soles, but no.. until one day, you hear about the Magical Meat Guy over at Mom park.. Like an urban legend amongst expats throughout Budapest. He exists thought. Apparently. P and I still haven't made the trip, but it's about time. I'm getting tired of all this pork and chicken.

Mama wants her some MEAT! Roaaarrr..

Right now, little S is sleeping. Mama is having coffee on the balcony, searching the internet for.. well, I don't know exactly.. Roaming for dresses for the upcoming wedding, random gifts for P, and oh yes - my latest addiction: japanese fabric! LOVE THEM!! Will I ever buy anything..? Probably not, but this is just like window shopping from home. I have nothing on my agenda today. Mondays are mostly about cleaning up after the weekend. Gonna have the girls come over for coffee & chat tomorrow, so I better make the mansion look presentable.

Have a great day y'all!

Love sTORIes

This picture perfectly sums up some of my greatest loves:

* Starbucks
* Glossy magazines
* Tori Spelling 

Yeah - that's right! I said it! Tori Spelling! And I'm proud of it! Well, yeah, sort of.. ehhrr.. (sorry Tori). I confess. I am addicted to Tori Spelling and everything about her (not in a psycho-stalker manner, just in a "the-baby's-sleeping-I-might-just-as-well-watch-daytime-TV" kind of way). It all started when I was pregnant and spent my days roaming the internet for The Perfect Baby Blanket (yes, I actually did that, took me forever and I ended up not buying one anyway) and watching "Tori & Dean - Inn love" on TV. The show is basically about nothing, like most reality TV-shows are, but I got totally obsessed (again, not in a crazy way) with Tori. Now I have seen all of her TV-shows, bought most of her books and I find myself anxiously checking Apple TV for a new season of "Home Sweet Hollywood".. ahhrrgg..

Well - I think I am proud, and I'm gonna say it out loud: 

I LOVE YOU TORI!! (call me sometime, will ya!?)

Here we go!

This is it..    Numero uno..    The very FIRST post..  No pressure.. 
Just have to write something super witty yet smart while at the same time memorable and eye-catching.. gggggg..

Oh friggity frick - I'll just throw in a presentation instead! 

Who am I? - If you're reading this you're probably either a relative or a friend (and you probably use this blog as a sign of my very existence since I suck at keeping in touch). But if that's not the case you might just want to know a bit about me! 
My name is Emma, I'm a thirty-something swede, currently living in the beautiful city of Budapest, Hungary, with my man and our sweet little daughter. Since I'm currently on maternity leave I spend my days caring for my little one, shopping, gossiping with friends, sightseeing, sunbathing and eating croissants. 
You know - just average housewife stuff! 

Why a blog? I wanted to start a blog mostly to keep a diary of this exciting time in my life. And I wanted my mom to know what I'm up to. Keeps her less worried.. ;-) 

In this blog I will write about my life in Budapest, about being a mom and a desperate housewife, about my likes and dislikes, hopes and dreams, glitter and sparkles, 
sugar and spice and everything nice!

Come rock with the Hula Hoop Honey!