Don’t want to start a sloppy post, but being that this blog is a sort of diary of my life, and that the man in question is a huge part of the mentioned life, I thought this was kind of due! Today’s the birthday of my favourite person in the world, and this totally deserve a post for itself.

When you’ll be reading this I will most probably be spending the morning baking a huge chocolate espresso cake following and adapting this beautiful recipe (doesn’t it look delicious?) and if you want to keep up to date with that, I will most probably post pictures of the cake on Instagram! I’m spending this weekend at his place, and it will be spent eating cakes, going out for a dinner & a movie kind of date (well deserved, since the last one we had was way back in July) and if all goes according to plan also spending a sweet afternoon browsing through a Christmas market (ah, my favourite thing!).

The downside of having someone that has birthday around the Christmas period is that you have to think for double gift ideas in less than a month time, but on the other hand giving festive themed things as gifts is totally appropriate (and picking up festive undies and sweaters for others must be one of my favourite thing that has ever been).

So, a very happy birthday to my favourite person of them all!

How are you spending your weekends?

I’ve been seeing Christmas decorations around, have already taken my first (and other twenty) visits to Christmas themed shops (including a browse through the Christmas Ikea stuff), have applied holiday themed desktop & iPhone wallpapers, have read way too many festive themed blog posts and recipes, compiled Christmas related mental wishlists and believe it or not, also already started thinking of possible gift for others, so I think it’s save to say it’s officially time for the Christmas blog posts to be around on Miel Café and to sing ‘Let it snow’ aloud as well. Also I’ve learnt it’s never too early for organizing your Christmas gift ideas and starting shopping – I do hate last minute stress and super crowded shops the very last week before Christmas!

I’ve compiled this first Christmas gift guide trying to put-together things that would make sense and would be great gifts for a vast category of people and trying to not get the excitement to choose for me as well, and hopefully you will be able to find some inspiration between them whether you’re looking for a present for your girlfriend, wife, mum, sister or bestie. A lot of them have already been added to my wishlist (just saying, in case my boyfriend is reading this! :D) and others are things I already have and love and think would make for great gifts for any girl!

1 :: For Lush enthusiastic ;

Lush’s Rudolph & 12 Days of Christmas
Lush has the cutest Christmas gift in my opinion, and if your girl loves bubbling bath and amazingly smelling beauty products, you can’t really go wrong with a Lush pick! Jam-packed with the most festive bath bombs, soap and shower jelly, look how cute that little Rudolph looks like! If you fancy an early Christmas gift instead, the 12 Days of Christmas is the cutest little box filled with 12 products for each day before Christmas, which is quite awesome if you ask me!

2 :: For every girl really ;

Olivia Burton Tan Watch
I won’t lie, this one is on top of my Christmas wishlist, I’d love to receive an Olivia Burton watch – they all look so polished and elegant, but I’m a fan of the simple tan watch which I think would suit most of the tastes out there.

3 :: For mums ;

This Works Sleeping Partners Duo
The This Works gift sets always make for good Christmas present for mums, especially if they like aromatherapy or have troubles with sleeping. I’ve picked a similar set for my mum last year and it was well appreciated!

4 :: For a friend ;

ASOS Rabbit Slippers

Look at these cute little slippers! Don’t they look the softest and most adorable thing in the world?

5 :: For homeware lovers ;

H&M Home Duvet Cover Set
H&M Home has the cutest winter themed bedding sets at the moment and I’m sure they would make for the perfect gift for any girl with a love for homeware bits!

6 :: For fashion lovers ;

Zara Checked Scarf
You might want to check a fashion lover’s wardrobe and make sure she doesn’t already own it before buying this one, but if not, this huge Zara scarf is such a winter staple and a perfect gift!

7 :: For bakers ;

The Kinfolk Table & Anthropologie Winter Garden Potholders
If your girl loves baking and cooking this one will make her happy. A great combo of the most aesthetically pleasing cooking book and some festive themed kitchen accessories, this one must be my personal favourite!

8 :: For china or tea lovers ;

Gift & Pieces Belle Teacup and Saucer
Available in a lot of colours, this is such a nice pick for anyone who enjoys tea time or collect cute ceramics. I love the lavender colour and the feminine shell shape!

9 :: For travelers ;

Kath Kidston Luggage Strap & Tag Set & Rifle Paper Co. 2015 Travel The World Calendar
These travel themed gifts would be well loved to any traveler girl: the luggage set is just super cute and feminine and it’s available in a different print as well to suit any suitcase, whilst the Rifle Paper Co. calendar is so beautifully illustrated that it will be pretty pleasant to flip through during the next year!

10 :: For baths/pamper lovers ;

Anthropologie Lavender Bath Brew

I love the concept behind this one, a tea bag for your bath, how ingenious! Plus lavender scent is one of my favourite and definitely perfect for a soothing, relaxing pampering session. This would make for a great stocking filler as well.

11 :: For note takers or students ;

Dandelion Fields Floral Notebook Collection
Anyone who likes to take notes or writing lists would love a good old stationery pick. The design of this set is beautiful, especially for feminine floral prints lovers!

12 :: For her stocking ;

Steamcream Little Ted & Friends Duo & Kath Kidston Set of 6 Pencils
I’ve spotted so many great stocking fillers already in shops and online, this year you have a vast choice! However I can not suggest Steamcream enough, one of my all times favourite beauty products, especially since they have great sets with festive designs on. But please also take a browse through the ASOS gifts selection – there’s something for everyone (seriously) and there are so many cute and affordable little things that I might think of putting together a stocking for myself… ops!

Don’t forget to come back later next week when me & my boyfriend will team up to bring you this year’s gift guide { for him! }.

You know I’m Italian, right? And you must know that we love our pizza in Italy. Me and my boyfriend teamed up for something different this time and made a little video-recipe for the recipe of our homemade pizza, to share with you how to make an Italian pizza from scratch! We like to eat pizza every Saturday at dinner (yes, this is why the lighting changes in the clip – hopefully it’s not too annoying but realistic instead!), it’s become a sort of tradition in my family first and then in his too since when I shared my mum’s recipe with him as well. Making pizza is not that time consuming, but the dough has to rest for a few hours, so it’s not something you can plan last minute. But the result is perfect, so I challenge you to try it!

Pizza for two | Ingredients :
250g white flour
150ml water
4g dried yeast
A pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
Tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, oregano, olive oil & sea salt for seasoning

1 :: Measure out the flour in a very large bowl with the water, the salt, sugar {it will help the dough to rise and will give that classic distinctive flavour to our pizza} and the dried yeast. Using a wooden spoon start stirring together all the ingredients until they start thickening and stirring becomes difficult.

2 :: Using your hands work the dough until smooth and then shape it into a round. Take your time, the smoother the better. You can do it onto a floured surface if you fancy, I find that it works fine if mixed directly in the bowl if it’s large enough to handle – also this will avoid to have too many thing to clean up afterward!

3 :: Place the dough into the bowl and using a knife cut a cross on it, it will help it to rise a lot better!

4 :: Place a {preferably warm} cloth over the bowl and leave it to rest and rise for 1 or 2 hours. Try and avoid to leave it to rise all the afternoon – the taste will be much better if baked after only a pair of hours of rising.

5 :: Tip a half of the raised pizza dough onto a floured surface and start shaping it with a rolling pin. We like out pizza thin and crispy so I tried and made it as thinner as possible – and approximately round.

6 :: Line a baking tray with parchment paper, oil it a bit before rolling up the dough onto the rolling pin to transfer it on the tray.

7 :: Using a fork create little superficial holes on the surface of the dough {it will avoid bubbles creation when the dough will be in the oven }. Then spread the tomato sauce on the surface using a spoon {I totally like a lot of tomato on doumy pizza but I know not everyone likes the same, so it’s totally up to you}.

8 :: Chop the mozzarella – again use how much you like, I generally like to cover all my pizza with it – and then place it all over the tomato layer. Add salt, a little bit of olive oil and oregano to taste. Add other ingredients if you want something more creative than a classic margherita.

9 :: Place it in the preheated oven and bake at 230°C for around 15 minutes – but always check that it isn’t burning or becoming too crispy on the outer surface.

10 :: Then serve and enjoy!

I’m aware that this is not the only italian homemade pizza recipe out there and that maybe people do it differently, however we experimented with this recipe for years now and we are totally pleased with it! It’s easy and quick enough that I hope you’ll try and bake your own italian pizza at home as well from now on!