sisterMAG 26 – Harvest & Soil – Messidor – English

messidor The harvest month »Messidor« inspired the last section of our »Harvest &Soil« issue. Messidor is the tenth month in the republican calendar during the French Revolution. Slowly but surely, fall has settled in, changes trees’ colours and turns the fields yellow, days are getting shorter and darker once again.

That makes it even more important to not let the chilly weather bring you down. With our partner Alpro, four bloggers told us their secrets for a happy and successful day. This part of sisterMAG is also about the pleasure of photography, and we get to show you the results of our CEWE workshops in Cologne. Additionally, we are all about different grains and the history of harvest and reap which come to an end in this season with Thanksgiving celebrations.

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- EDITORIAL In the Editorial of your »Harvest & Soil« issue we explore among other things natural resources, the trend towards a rural lifestyle, the grain harvest and cook great recipes with freshly harvested produce.

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w h at happened s o fa r ?

- SECTION 1 VENDÉMIAIRE The wine month and first month of fall. In this sisterMAG section, small companies and their production are waiting for you. Another topic is »strong women«: We will look into their history and present with our partners Lillet and VICHY.

- SECTION 3 FRUCTIDOR Fructidor, der Fruchtmonat ist der dritte Monat im Sommerquartal. Wir haben für Euch den Table of the Month in einer Apfelwiese aufgebaut, Marmeladenrezepte aus der Bloggerküche gesucht und uns gemeinsam mit Grundig und SCHOTT Ceran ein ganzes IFA-Wochenende dem Respekt vor Essen (#RespectFood) gewidmet.

Mit L'Oréal inszenierten wir zum Abschluss die Tonerde Absolue Masken.

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ta b l e o f content Messidor| What's waiting for you today? q SEPARATING THE WHEAT Everything about wheat and corn qIN BETWEEN Our fashion collection for this issue with free patterns

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 FROM SCYNTHES TO COMBINE HARVESTERS The history of crops and harvesting

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 EAT BETTER NOT LESS Everyday rituals with Alpro that make you happy

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q GARDEN AND THE CITY Searching for green spots in the urban city

q KINFOLK The Kinspiracy

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WORKSHOPS & PHOTOKINA TOUR Our blogger event in Cologne with CEWE #sisterMAGlovesCEWE

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IN BETWEEN

When just a small grain fits in between summer and fall and the seasons gradually drift into each other, the light turns warmer and the shadows grow longer. This is the feeling we wanted to transport for our cover with food blogger Christine | Trickytine .

On the following pages, we want to show you the fashion and our feature for this shooting.

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8 The summer that passes is like a friend who tells us good bye.

VICTOR MARI E H UGO

Photos: Oh Hedwig

Styling & Dresses: Evi Neubauer Hair /Make-up: Lena Schleweis

Production: sisterMAG / Lena Holzer Model: Christine Garcia Urbina

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¥ ¥ white mens shirt

¥ ¥ Tulle in white and cream

tones (e.g. f ine tulle T5 by Tulle Factory)

¥ ¥ Leftover white organza ¥ ¥ Lace

¥ ¥ Strips of fabric

D I Y S H I RT B LO U S E

Everyone knows this problem: When the collar of the favourite shirt is rubbed through and HE still wears it. The fabric is much to beautiful to be tossed… this is why sisterMAG turns it into a Couture-Blouse à la »Victor & Rolf«

DOWNLOAD Pa t t e r n SISTER-MAG.COM

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B LO U S E , S K I RT & B O D I C E

DOWNLOAD Pa t t e r n

The outfit of the season is inspired by a Prada collection, that was a major inspiration for this sisterMAG issue. Through the skirts of the Italian fashion brand, we discovered the calendar months during the French revolution that became our section titles. This is why it is only logical that we wanted to dress in Prada-style. With our DIYpatterns, this is possible without ruining your wallet this fall!

BLOUSE with white sleeves ¥ ¥ 1,1 m shirt poplin ¥ ¥ 5 blouse buttons

BROCADE SKIRT ¥ ¥ 80 cm Jacquard with Lurex (e.g. fabrics by Zanderino)

¥ ¥ 80 cm lining fabric ¥ ¥ seam zipper 22 cm ¥ ¥ 1 button

BODICE ¥ ¥ 25cm denim fabric, rough linen or cotton (Panamabindung)

¥ ¥ 25 cm lining fabric ¥ ¥ zipper 18 cm

¥ ¥ button hole silk

¥ ¥ 1,2 m thread or velvet ribbon SISTER-MAG.COM

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8 Fall, that reunites soil and leaves, that were lend to summer.

GEORG CH RISTOP H LICH T ENBERG

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LINEN BL AZER

This blazer quickly turns into a favourite, not just because a lot of work was put into it, but also as it ennobles every outfit: whether it's business-like or for your leisure time outdoors (we are still looking for the right occasion to combine it with the tulle skirt - so far this can only be seen on the sisterMAG cover!)

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DOWNLOAD Pa t t e r n 20

¥ ¥ 1,4m light linen (e.g. by Naturstoff.de)

¥ ¥ Inlay

¥ ¥ 1,4m lining fabric ¥ ¥ Shoulder pads

¥ ¥ 3 nacre buttons

¥ ¥ shoulder flaps to sew on (e.g. by ebay)

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8 Fall is the season, when nature turns the pages.

PAVEL KOSORI N | 1964

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¥ ¥ 0,5 m thick lining fabric ¥ ¥ Elastic band (1,5 cm

wide) length depending on your waist line

Tulle (e.g. by Tulle Factory)

¥ ¥ 10 m "Dora / Dark sand"

¥ ¥ 10 m "Dora / Champagne" (light beige)

¥ ¥ 2 m tulle in white "Mary Gravel"

C O U T U R E T U L L E S K I RT

The sisterMAG is well experienced with tulle skirts (see sisterMAG N°13 and 22) – our closet space is already limited. However, if you decide to recreate our cover skirt, make sure to make some room. Because even if it is a light as a feather, this will probably be the most voluminous skirt that you have DOWNLOAD ever owned. Pa t t e r n

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Don't complain, don't pout, when summer time is passing; as it is the world's destiny that everything has to come and go.

WI LH ELM MĂœLLER

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BEHIND THE SCENES

The best sign of a successful shooting: when no one wants to leave in the end! The whole team will long remember our day together with Tine in the Brandenburg countryside, as we seldomly had that much fun, were that silly (whose idea was it to climb a wiggly leather up to the attic?) and heard Saskia shout: ÂťThat's so amazingÂŤ that much! We hope that our pictures can reflect the mood and great fun, we had during the shoot. A special thanks goes out to Saskia, Oh Hedwig,

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(who we – Spoiler – also made our Cover Model for the upcoming issue) and Hair-&Makeup-Artist Lena Schleweis and especially to Evi Neubauer, who once again created wonderful outfits for us as well as to Lena for all the organisation!! And we were absolutely amazed by Tine who managed to walk through in 10cm high Prada heels and simply sat down in the middle of a pumpkin patch.

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SPECIAL THANKS

Where can you find such an amazingly beautiful and versatile location? A special thanks goes out to our colleague Kitty, who let us use her house along with the barn in the »Löwenberger Land«! Many thanks for your friendly hospitality (even when absent ;)) and the possibility, to show all sides of your barn!

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Lena, Evi, Thea, Tine, Lena, Hannah & Saskia

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Separating the wheat from the chaff Everything about wheat and other grains

Text: Nina Fรถrster Fotos: Karin Klammer

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rain is literally in everybody’s mouths. In this sisterMAG feature, it’s all about grain, the worldwide staple food. We tell you which grain types and alternatives there are and how the cultivation began.

Grain – what is that exactly?

Agriculturally cultivated annual plants from the family of grasses are known as grains. They yield single-seeded fruit in order to be considered as grain. This fruit is known as the seed.

The classical grain types The »top-selling« grains are rice, corn and wheat. Of the latter, 800 million tons per year are produced which makes it the leader among grains.

Corn and rice are processed in equal parts – 700 million tons each. As well as rice, corn and wheat, rye, millet, oat and barley are also among the classical grain types. But if you think there are more than these seven types: You’re wrong because other types like emmer, einkorn and spelt are just subspecies of wheat.

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Quick check of the classics

Wheat

Spelt

For us Europeans, it’s probably the most well-known and consumed grain type and a real all-rounder. Worldwide, there are more than 1,000 different kinds of wheat. Whether it’s cake, bread, Christmas cookies or biscuit – wheat flour is used in most of these pastries. Also, pasta is made of durum wheat.

In recent years, spelt has been experiencing a real revolution: Spelt bread and rolls, as well as pasta made of spelt, can be found in almost every well-sorted supermarket today. This wheat type is mostly sold as organic grain. The plant is significantly more weather-resistant than wheat and is mainly cultivated in Finland, Switzerland, BadenWuerttemberg and Belgium.

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Einkorn 10,000 years ago, einkorn was already cultivated in Asia Minor.

It‘s the original form of wheat and came to Europe around 5,000 years ago. For a long time, einkorn had to give way to the more profitable wheat and wasn’t cultivated at all. But its revival started with ecological agriculture.

Emmer Emmer is hardly cultivated today although it’s one of the healthiest wheat types. Why? It was replaced by other grains like barley or rye. Today, it’s mainly used in Southern cuisine, like in Turkey, Iraq or Israel.

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Rice Rice is mainly a part of daily meals in Asian and Latin-American countries. With over 8,000 types worldwide, it’s hard to decide which ones to like most. But it can be fundamentally divided into three groups: long, medium and short grain rice. Originally, rice comes from China, India and Korea.

Corn Thanks to Columbus, the LatinAmerican grain came to Europe.

So it was already cultivated in Spain in the 16th century. Because of various breedings, cultivation is also possible in colder regions of Europe today. It’s used for further processing and as animal feed. Traditionally, the corn and its leaves are steamed over wood fires.

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Rye

Barley

Rye is very temperature-resistant; it even grows at -25 degrees Celsius below zero. Today, it’s sown in two phases which is why a distinction between summer and winter rye is made. In Asia Minor, it was considered to be a weed and was only discovered as an ingredient for baking bread in the 12th century.

Barley is originally from the Middle East and the Eastern Balkans. There is a difference between naked barley, i.e. the peeled barleycorn, and the spelt barley, i.e. with skin. The plant is very adaptive and can therefore be cultivated in many regions.

Millet

Oat

Millet is the longest known grain and was the staple food for people on all continents for centuries. Its German name »Hirse« is derived from the old Germanic word ‘Hirsi’ which means nutritiousness or satiety. It was mainly used to produce unleavened pitta bread.

Oat is especially easy to cultivate and loves rain. Therefore, it’s mainly found in regions with high rainfall like the Alpine region.

Caused by its simple cultivation, oat can be purchased cheaply as a food. It is one of the most nourishing grain types.

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Wait a minute!

There is more?

The alternatives.

Nowadays, there are many vegetable products that have became a common alternative to grain but actually are not classified as such. They are especially appreciated by allergy sufferers and offer a variety in our everyday food. We summarized the common alternatives for you.

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Quinoa Quinoa is a real protein monster.

Rich in minerals and vitamins, it was a staple food of the Inca for a long time. That’s why it’s also called the Inca grain. Quinoa is cultivated in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

Buckwheat Even though »wheat« indicates otherwise, it’s actually not a grain.

Buckwheat bears similarities to beechnuts, is gluten-free and ideally suited for people with coeliac disease.

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Amaranth

Hemp

Just like Quinoa, amaranth was a staple food for Inca and Aztecs for a long time. Nowadays, the pseudocereal is cultivated in other altitudes besides than Mexico, like in Pakistan and Nepal. At the same time, amaranth was successfully cultivated in Germany.

Hemp is one of the oldest useful and ornamental plants we know.

Originally native in Central Asia, it’s been used as delicious food in China for centuries. The plant fibers are used to produce ropes and clothes.

Flaxseed Who doesn’t know them? The small brown seeds are used in mueslis or various types of bread.

The plant linum is also known as flax and was already cultivated around the year 5,000 BC to use its fibers for producing textiles.

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A short historic detour

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esearchers found out that grain was cultivated as early as around the year 8,000 BC in the Middle East. This is also where the art of baking bread started. The seeds from the grasses were ground, mixed with water and processed into dough. Roasted on a hot stone, the unleavened form of pitta bread resulted from this. Even today, people in developing countries bake that way.

Since in the neolithic Age, around 5,000 BC, the agrarian grain culture came to Western Europe.

Especially the ancient grains spelt, emmer and einkorn were cultivated. Also before Christ, corn and rice were cultivated in Latin America and today’s USA as well as in Asia. Back then, cereal grains were mainly used to bake bread.

In Egypt, for example, the first bakeries of arose.

The Celts and their use of yeast in order to produce beer helped to developed the first yeast mixtures.

The Romans revolutionized the processing of the grain to flour with modern techniques and built the first community ovens. You can learn everything about bread and its history in our sisterMAG feature in issue 23 .

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Did you know?

Fun facts about grain.

FAMILY OF GRASSES

= 1 KARAT Grains were a common currency for a long time, and some expressions from that time are known to date. Cereal grains had standard weights which made them a simple-to-use currency. This is how the word ÂťcaratÂŤ came up that we still use in connection with diamonds and precious metals. One carat corresponded to three grains of barley or four grains of wheat.

All present grain types belong to the family of grasses. Their original form was changed over centuries by targeted breeding in order to achieve higher yields.

There are seven grain types: rice, corn, wheat, millet, oat, rye and barley. Any other types are either subspecies or belong to the so-called pseudocereals.

6,13

MILLION TONS

Today, the most important cultivation countries for grain are the USA, China and India.

In Germany, about 6.13 million tons of grain (in the form of flour) was consumed the year 2014/15.

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scynthes to combine harvesters

from

A history of grain harvesting.

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For centuries grain harvesting was a tedious, laborious and mainly manual task – but then a few genius inventions turned it into child’s play. Let us take you on a journey from the times of the scythe to the wonder that is the modern combine harvester.

In terms of food sourcing times have never been easier than they are today. Freshly baked bread available from your nearest bakery several times a day, any kind of fruit or vegetable you may desire from the farmer’s market and really anything at all waiting for you at your local supermarket. The conditions

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Alexander Kords studied linguistics and philosophy and has been working as an editor since 2011. He lives with his wife and two children in Wiener Neustadt.

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TEXT: ALEXANDER KORDS

our ancestors faced when it came to sourcing food for their family are all but forgotten. The physical labour involved in tilling the fields, hoping for summer to be neither too hot nor too cold and the sheer desperation if the weather didn’t play along and harvests failed. Consequently people placed the fate of their crops into god’s hands – which is still evident today in Thanksgiving celebrations (especially in the US and Canada).

Even centuries before, humans had figured out that ground wheat could be combined with water to make an edible pulp which – shaped into a flat disk – could be baked above a fire where it would turn into delicious bread. Thanks to the changes in climate, the people of the Stone Age were able to grow their crops in designated

New weather conditions made plants like Einkorn and Emmer grow

Around 12,000 years ago, the last ice age with its long-lasting impact on the earth’s climate ended. Summers became warm and dry, yet mild winters and springs brought rainfall and humidity.

s e v a e l e l b um Apiaceae

These new weather conditions facilitated the thriving of the corps of these times like einkorn wheat and wild emmer.

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oats Avena

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places and so the prehistoric huntergatherers, who had to keep moving constantly in order to secure food, turned into resident farmers.

Even in the early days, sickles were used during the harvest so the matured crops wouldn’t have to be picked individually by hand.

These early tools consisted of a piece of wood or antler to which a blade made from flint stone had been affixed with resin.

A way more efficient tool was invented: the scynthe.

When men mastered the processing of metal this had a noticeable impact on farming and harvesting. Sickles were now fitted with metal blades which made them both sharper and more durable and a new and even more efficient tool was invented: the scythe.

The first version had a rather short

handle and hence the user had to crouch or bend down. Only later did a particularly clever person come up with the idea of lengthening the handle and setting the blade at an angle. The way the actual grains were removed from the ears also underwent a significant change: Stone Age farmers used to thresh the wheat with sticks but now the more efficient flails were i n t ro d u ce d .

Their defining feature was a moveable piece of wood which made it much easier to use and hence made

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extracting the grain a much less straining effort.

The hurling flail literally separated the – heavier wheat from the - lighter – chaff; so all that was left to do was collect the former off the ground afterwards.

At the beginning of the 19th century even more machines were invented For many centuries, however, harvesting and processing grains remained a physically strenuous task for the humans - or the animals involved. Of course farmers were always looking for ways to make their lives a little easier and the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder in his encyclopedia »Naturalis historia« describes a harvest machine powered by an animal used in Gaul in the first couple of decades AD. This wooden box on two wheels was pushed across the grain field by a donkey or ox. The front of the box was uncovered and fitted with a row of sharp blades SISTER-MAG.COM

which tore off the ears as they moved past them. This concept, however, would not be revisited or improved upon for a long time to come.

It wasn’t until the 19th century that several machines employing a similar method (re-)emerged: In 1814, the English actor Thomas Dobbs installed a circular saw inside such a box. Then twelve years later the Scottish priest Patrick Bell built a harvest machine which used the basic functions still relied upon today. Bell‘s machine, a model of which can still be seen at the National Museum of Rural Life outside Glasgow, was fitted with several moveable knives that cut the crops. Bell did not have his invention patented as, being a man of god, he wanted to make it available to the general public. So it fell to the American Cyrus McCormick, who further developed the machine, to finally take out a patent in 1831. His »Virginia Reaper« was a great success and revolutionized the way 54

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grains are harvested.

From the end of the 19th century, the industrial revolution further cemented the now irrevocable triumph of machine aided harvesting.

With the increased

2.7 billion tons of grains per year – a sheer unfathomable amount which would take a whole lot of scythe swinging to match.

»Virginia Reaper« revolutionized the harvest availability of combustion engines, draught animals were

gradually

replaced

by tractors and soon after the combine harvester was born; a machine that drives across the field and both cuts the crops and threshes the ears.

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combine harvesters have a wing span of more than 10 meters (32+ feet) and bring in a combined amount of 55

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A

D AY

In our last section »Messidor«, the days become shorter and a little darker. Things that lighten your mood and make you happy are very important, especially in these phases of change. But what makes a »good day«? On the internet, there are lots of lists and instructions for a successful day, though the feeling of accomplishment is individual to each person.

So, what gives us energy, motivation and joy? We often go to bed happy when we have achieved our daily objectives – this could be anything: from productive work to the satisfaction of a relaxing day.

From completing that morning jog to a successful party or »simply« a great conversation.

But no matter what the objective of the day is, food and enjoyment play an important role in influencing your personal well-being.

own objectives and rethink your ingrained habits by structuring your day. Later on, we share the daily routines of present and past historic celebrities and artists.

Though,

creating

a

structured

routine seems intimidating, it can be most simply achieved through a consistent breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Four bloggers, with the help from our partner Alpro, put together some tips on how you can organize your eating schedule. They share insider advice from proper planning, attentive shopping and preparation to enjoyment.

The

four

through

bloggers how

they

walked

us

maintain

happiness in their everyday lives by revealing their favorite rituals and recipes.

The results are clean, delicious and

In the following section, we show easy-made recipes for an enjoyable you how you can reach your day that you can check out here.

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… Mason Currey on the

O F T H E D AY

Mason Currey is a writer and editor living in Los Angeles. In 2007, he started the blog Daily as a hobby, posting anecdotes about Routines writers’ and artists’ routines as he ran across them in his reading. After the blog attracted international attention in 2008, he pitched a book based on the concept, and embarked on a much more rigorous research process.

Compiling the book while also working a full-time job as a magazine editor, he realized that the only way to do both things was to get up really early in the morning – a habit he continues to this day, waking up at 5:30 a.m. on weekdays.

Currey is now working on a mini-sequel to Daily Rituals that will focus entirely on women artists, to be published as an e-book in early 2017.

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»Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition,« the English poet W. H. Auden wrote in 1958. While Auden may have taken his own daily routine a little too seriously— »He checks his watch over and over again,« a guest of Auden’s once recalled, noting that everything in his day was »timed to the minute and with accompanying routines«— I believe that his assertion is essentially correct. Given a finite amount of free time and mental energy, smart and ambitious people tend to construct schemes for making the most of those precious resources. And the most basic and essential of those schemes is a solid daily routine.

That, at least, was the conclusion I drew from researching my first book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work (published in German as Musenküsse),

which examines how a variety of brilliant minds from the last 400 years—including novelists, poets, painters, composers, philosophers, and filmmakers—organized their days in order to be creative and productive.

Now, I suspect that some people are surprised by this juxtaposition of art/creativity and schedules/routine. There is a vague idea in the popular imagination that these are practically opposite concepts—that creativity is all about freedom and inspiration and following your instincts, not submitting to a boring daily routine.

I’m here to tell you that, in fact, the opposite is true— that creativity thrives on routine, and that establishing an effective

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»I dream of my work and write down my thoughts when I get up,« Karl Lagerfeld says… schedule is almost always a baseline requirement for sustained artistic production.

Inspiration may exist, but more often than not it is the product of steady work rather than its prerequisite. »Inspiration is for amateurs,« the painter Chuck Close likes to say. »The rest of us just show up and get to work.«

proper work.

ally instead of our enemy.« He continued:

Or as James once wrote in his diary, »only when habits of order are formed can we advance to really interesting fields of action.« This makes intuitive sense: If you have to consciously decide each day when you’re going to work and for how long, you’re already wasting precious mental resources—and risking the possibility that other commitments will hijack your day.

Successful artists instinctively understand this, and are often ruthless about protecting their work hours, knowing that the world would be all too happy to monopolize their time if they let it.

The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own

So routine is about guaranteeing that you find the time in the day for your most important work— and it’s also about training the brain to reach a certain state of

Why is routine so important?

Partly it’s simple psychology—as William James argued in an 1892 lecture to teachers, the »great thing« in education is to »make our nervous system our

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Mason’s book was translated into more than 10 languages. In German, you find 2 editions from and the publisher »Kein & Aber«: Musenküsse Mehr Musenküsse

mind on a daily basis. There’s something almost magical about this repetition. As the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has said about his own early-morning writing schedule: »The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism.

I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.« What about the difference between routine and ritual? Certainly they are different concepts, even if they sometimes get tossed around interchangeably. I like to think of routine as the basic framework for the day, and

rituals as the individual bundles of behavior. You need an effective routine to guarantee that you’ll make time each day for whatever your most important project is— and, ideally, to schedule that project time for whenever you tend to have the most appropriate mental energy. Rituals, on the other hand, are more mysterious, and more fragile. They are highly individualized and, to my mind, almost always fascinating to read about. Some of my favorite discoveries include the fact that Beethoven counted out exactly 60 coffee beans for his

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morning cup; that Friedrich Schiller claimed to keep a drawer full of rotting apples in his workroom, because he needed their decaying smell in order to feel the urge to write; and that Maya Angelou rented a »tiny, mean« hotel or motel room in order to do her writing, surrounding herself with a dictionary, a Bible, a deck of cards, and a bottle of Sherry.

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But while these kinds of quirky habits are fun to dwell on, the truth is that they’re peripheral. For aspiring or practicing creative workers, the crucial thing is to take a hard look at your temperament and priorities, and then craft a daily routine that best suits them, while protecting you from your own worst habits. »There’s no one way,« the American writer Bernard Malamud once said on this subject. »The real mystery to crack is you.«

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READING SAMPLE

»Routine – I hate that word,« Karl Lagerfeld says. Nevertheless, the working day of the world-famous fashion designer is full of routines. He lives in Paris in two adjacent houses. One house is for sleeping and drawing, in the other one, there are an office, a studio, a kitchen and a salon where he receives visitors. He described his daily life to the magazine Harper’s Bazaar as follows: »I always sleep seven hours. When I go to bed at 2 am, I get up at 9 am. When I go to bed at midnight, I wake up at 7 am. I don’t wake up earlier – the house could collapse, I need my seven hours.« He often writes down the thoughts he had at night after he gets up. »Recently, I dreamed a whole collection and the next morning, I drew it completely. Everything worked out fine.« His breakfast consists of two sugar-free protein shakes with chocolate flavor, steamed apples and one of many more coke light cans. While still wearing his nightdress, he then goes into his reading room that overlooks the Seine and the Louvre and reads newspapers or makes his first drawings. At 11 am, he gets his hair styled and colored white before he gets back to work.

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NOT LESS EVERYDAY #ALPRONISTA RITUALS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY

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P H O T O S : Jules Villbrandt | Herz & Blut H A I R & M A K E U P : Patricia Heck

& Tina Fischbach

F O O D - S T Y L I N G : Katharina Flick P R O D U C T I O N : Franziska Winterling & Laura Glabbatz

»We are what we eat,« a very familiar expression. As it happens, the way we eat has a legitimate influence on our well-being and plays a significant role in our daily routine.

Following the motto »Eat Better - Not Less,« we asked four food and lifestyle bloggers to share how they structure a productive day without stress. During our conversations, some delicious recipes were reccomended to ensure a healthy and efficient day. With our partner Alpro, there is always a perfect answer due to their purely vegetable products: Be that a breakfast with a variety of vegetable drinks and yoghurt alternatives, the cooking creams for the perfect lunch or the vegetable curd alternatives Go On for the snack between meals.

Although we gained exciting insight into the lives of four contrasting successful women, they have one thing in common: They all can’t live without a small snack in the afternoon! Have a look at the beautiful days and moments we caught with the photographer Jules from »Herz und Blut« and discover great tips for a good (and delicious) day.

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A D AY WITH The lifestyle and fitness blogger Bea (La Panthere) writes at www.bealapanthere.com about everything important to ensure a healthy and happy lifestyle.

We accompanied the Munich native on her daily jog, asked about her morning routine and took part in a light meal with her friends.

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Chia seed pudding with mango

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I T S TA R T S …

»In the morning, nothing can get done without my coffee! That’s why my first steps of the day lead me to the coffee machine.« B E A

While the author Haruki Murakami (*1949) works on his novel, he gets up at 4 am every day and writes for a consistant five to six hours »I keep this routine every day, without variations.« SISTER-MAG.COM

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WHAT DO YOU PRIORITIZE BEFORE YOU GET TO WORK? Time for myself! That’s why I always get up a little earlier than I have to. There’s nothing I hate more than stress and rush in the morning WHO OR WHAT MAKES YOUR MORNING MORE BEAUTIFUL? The sun! When the bright sunshine wakes me up, the day just can get beautiful

# A L P R O N I S TA T I P

Enjoy the coffee in the morning with a coconut or almond drink instead of milk! You get tips on foaming at kitchenstories.de 69

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CALLIGRAPHY: Jeannette Mokosch SISTER-MAG.COM

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# A L P R O N I S TA

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HOW DOES YOUR PERFECT BREAKFAST LOOK LIKE? For breakfast, I like to eat fruit bowls with fresh yoghurt and some nuts.

WHICH TASKS DO YOU ACCOMPLISH FIRST IN THE MORNING? After I make some coffee, I normally sit down in front of my MacBook to read or answer mails.

# A L P R O N I S TA T I P

If the fruit bowl is too boring for you: Soak chia seeds with an almond drink over night, puree mangos and put them on the pudding as a mousse.

Spread some coconut flakes on it.

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For the artist Miró (18931983), there was no day without sports. His favorite activities were running and boxing.

WHAT ELSE IS PART OF YOUR MORNING? When the weather is nice, I like to run along the Isar.

This clears my mind, and even when if don’t feel like running in the moment, I am motivated by the great feeling post-workout!

The artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) talked to his friend Pat Hackett for one to two hours on the phone every morning and described his previous day to her.

She initially wrote it down as an overview over his f inances, later her notes became »The Warhol Diaries«.

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V E G A N PA N C A K E S A fluffy breakfast alternative by

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200 ml Alpro Almond drink Unseetened 2 tbsp. coconut flour 7 tbsp. wholemeal 1 tbsp. agave syrup

for

7-8 PANCAKES

Download

2–3 tbsp. amaranth (puffed) 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. cinnamon coconut oil

Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix them with a whisk until you get a smooth dough.

If the dough is too firm, stir in a little bit of the Alpro Almond drink Unsweetened.

Spread out coconut oil in the pan and fry the dough until you get pancakes. I use about 2 to 3 tablespoons of dough to get a pancake.

The pancakes taste really delicous with fresh fruits, e.g. berries.

If you like it especially sweet, you can pour over some agave syrup or maple syrup.

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A D AY W I T H

The YouTuber Talisa shares everything that makes life more beautiful on her YouTube channel – from @bluetenschimmer cosmetics to vegan recipe ideas.

Whenever you meet the lively Berlin local, you are instantly put in a great mood. We had an amazing day together visiting a market, savouring a snack on her balcony and, of course, enjoying lunch!

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CALLIGRAPHY: Tanja Cappell | Frau Hoelle SISTER-MAG.COM

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T H R O U G H T H E D AY W I T H O U T SLEEPINESSS

»A long lunch break is important to me in order to gather energy for the afternoon« TA L I S A WHEN DO YOU HAVE LUNCH? Normally I get hungry between 12:30 and 1 pm.

DO YOU USUALLY HAVE A RELAXING LUNCHBREAK? I’m often on the go for most of the day so I typically have lunch out and about. When I’m at home, I like to have a calm lunch.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE FOR LUNCH? I like to have fresh salads or a lunchbowl with different ingredients and vegetables. I especially like when there is a lot of variety!

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Hard to believe

The philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) replaced his lunch with coffee and chocolate.

# A L P R O N I S TA T I P

We spent the lunchbreak with Talisa in the Markthalle Neun (»market hall nine«). Although it’s difficult to leave the desk in the middle of the workflow: A short break, e.g. a short trip to the market, is great for the productivity in the afternoon. Don’t forget fresh fruits for a bowl with plant based alternative to yogurt, i.w. Alpro Simply Plain !

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Q U I N OA LU N C H B OW L The vegan all-rounder by

2 tbsp plant based alternative to strained yogurt Alpro Go On Plain fresh chive

1 small or medium size sweet potato Cherry tomatoes (amounut as desired)

fresh spinach or broccoli (amount as desired)

1 cucumber

1 cup of quinoa

1 cup of smoked tofu, diced

1-2 lemons 1 avocado

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1-2 carrots

To season: rosemary, salt, pepper, rapeseed

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for

1 BOWL

Download

Get all the ingredients ready for use. Of course, you can get creative and modify the ingredients!

Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Peel the sweet potato and cut it into stripes. Then mix it with salt, rosemary and some vegetable oil. Bake it in the preheated oven at 200° C for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, cook the cup of quinoa according to the instructions on the packet.

Now you can prepare the vegetable herb dip that will be the final touch to the bowl: Finely chop the chive, mix it with about 3 teespoons of Plant based alternative to strained yogurt Alpro Go On Plain and season it with a pinch of salt and pepper – and the topping is ready.

Serve all ingredients in a bowl. It’s best to start with the quinoa on the bottom and drape the other ingredients in a circular shape on it. Finally add the vegetable herb dip and some lemon juice. All done!

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A D AY WITH

The name of Scarlett’s delicious recipe blog says it all: www.letsbetasty.de What we obsess over? Lovers of sweets can indulge with a clear conscience. We commenced our afternoon with Scarlett, with comfy coffee party, a quaint picnic, and a wonderfull tartlet that you definitely have make for yourself!

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W H AT A C T U A L LY HAPPENS TO THE

»I love to snack! It gives me new energy and motivation.« S C A R L E T T AFTERNOON SLEEPINESS: DO YOU HAVE IT AND WHAT DO YOU DO COMBAT IT? Although I often grab for a warm or iced cup of coffee, caffine is not always the universal cure.

Though what does give me new energy are healthy bars or a small bowl of yoghurt with fruit.

WHICH TASKS DO YOU PREFER TO ACCOMPLISH IN THE AFTERNOON? In the afternoon, I talk a lot on the phone or partake in interviews because many candidates have time then. I also plan my schedule for the next day in order to begin the next day more structured and organized.

The author Thomas Mann (1875-1955) only wrote in the morning. Everything he couldn’t accomplish until 12 pm had to wait until the next day. In the afternoon, he read, sleept for one hour and spent time with his family.

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SWEET OR SALTY – WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE SNACKS? Sweet. Mueslis, yoghurts und puddings are not just on my mind for breakfast.

HOW DO YOU LIKE SPENDING A FREE AFTERNOON? Every since I’ve been a food blogger, I cook, bake and create new recipes. My blog doesn’t fill up by itself. ;)

»Fortunately, I rarely have afternoon sleepiness – normally only when I had a heavy and unhealthy lunch. Since I’ve tried to eat lighter meals with many vegetables and minimal cereal products, I’m not as tired in the afternoon.« T H ER E SA ON

THE AF TERNOON SLEEP I NESS

# A L P R O N I S TA T I P

A perfect snack for the afternoon: the Alpro Devilishly Dark Chocolate Dessert. We’ve spread some caramelized popcorn on it!

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CALLIGRAPHY Tanja Cappell | Frau Hoelle SISTER-MAG.COM

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AFTERNOON

# A L P R O N I S TA C A K E

It’s not a real coffee party without a delicious cake. Our tip for spontaneous coffee sessions? A delicious raspberry tarte consisting of a simple biscuit base and a cream made from Alpro’s plant based alternative. The final touch, a homemade raspberry sauce with fresh fruits on top, is definitely worth enjoying.

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Alpronista curd (alternative) tarte

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AFTERNOON # A L P R O N I S TA P I C N I C

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A waterfront picnic is a refreshing change for city dwellers who have become accustom to the concrete metropolis.

You don’t need that much: Just pack the quiche from the evening before, some fruits and the plant based alternatives to strained yogurt Alpro Go On!

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R O S E TA R T L E T S Almost too beautyful to be eaten by

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DOUGH 150 g Spelt flour (type 630) 100 g grounded almonds (peeled)

for

4 TARTLETS

Download

10 g baking soda (preferably tartar)

1 pinch of salt 100 g brown raw cane sugarr 6 tbsp. Alpro plant based alternative to yogurt Plain with Almond 50 ml rapeseed oil (refined, tasteless) 4 tbsp. rose water 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar 150 ml Alpro Almond drink Unsweetened Coconut oil for greasing

CREAM 400 g (1 Cup) Alpro plant based alternatives to strained yogurt Plain 200 g Alpro plant based alternative to yogurt Plain with Almond 2 tsp. agave syrup 3-4 tbsp. rose water (upon individual taste 4 dessert rings dried, eatable rose blooms (e.g. direct&friendly) 95

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Start with preheating the oven to 200° C. For the dough, you stir all the ingredients with a mixer.

Next, take out a baking tray with a top layer of baking paper. On the paper, brush a little coconut oil then spread the dough on it. Lightly tap on the tray underneath to avoid air bubbles in the dough. Now, bake it for 25-30 minutes (check if the dough is firm).

In the meantime, mix the cream. Stir all the ingredients with a spoon or a fork and then chill the cream in the fridge.

As soon as the base is done baking and cooled down a little, cut out 16 circles with the dessert rings. You should think about how strategically

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cut them out before so you can get more circles for the amount of dough on your sheet!

Put the unglazed tartlets and the rest of the cream in the fridge over night. The next day, carefully take the tartlets out of the forms. If necessary, you can use a knife to loosen the edges. Spread the rest of the cream on the tartlets and glaze them with a spoon or a brush. It’s okay if the bases can still be seen, this way a »naked cake« effect occurs.

Afterwards, gently crumble the eatable roses with your fingers and sprinkle them over the tartlets.

Alternatively, a whole uncrumbled rose gives the tartlet a different look. Trust us, they taste as fabulous as they look!

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A D AY W I T H

Theresa bloggs at www.thewaitress.de sharing deliciously healthy recipes and spreads inspiration to live a more thankful and sustainabile life. Together, we wrap up the day with an enjoyable walk and, naturally, a very delicious dinner from her kitchen.

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Quiche

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SHARE THIS QUOTE

CALLIGRAPHY: Jeannette Mokosch

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CONCLUSION IN THE

WHAT TIME DO YOU WRAP UP YOUR WORK DAY?

HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU TAKE FOR DINNER?

I don’t have a clear end of work since I commit myself to my blog and try to continue my creativity after work. But I often try to start the relaxed part of the evening by 7 or 8 pm and leave my cares behind.

WHAT HELPS YOU WIND DOWN IN THE EVENING? My favorite way of relaxing in the evening is to switch off my laptop and smartphone, lean back in my sofa and listen to some beautiful music. I usually drink a cup of chai tea, read something or brainstorm some new ideas in my notebook.

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For me, it’s important that dinner is both wholesome and quickly prepared because after work I don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen. Routinely, oven vegetables are my saver because depending on what‘s in my fridge, I can add them to anz recipe! I also like to make my one pot quinoa or stir-fried vegetables.

COZY ON THE SOFA OR GOING OUT WITH FRIENDS? I like to get drinks with friends from time to time but normally I stay at home. That’s where I like to calm down after working during the day.

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When he lived in Paris in 1925, author F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) tried to write between 5 pm and 3:30 am. Though most nights, he prefered to go out with his wife Zelda.

»I always sleep like a log! I can sleep anywhere and every time when I’m tired.

My advice is to take a bath or a shower before you get to sleep and to drink a sleeping tea with lavender and hop. I also love to listen to audio dramas, that totally relaxes me.« TA L I S A A B O U T H E R E V E N I N G

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»I can get to sleep quite easily, I think that fresh air and a ‘tidy’ head are helpful for that.« T H E R E S A

RATHER HAVING AN EARLY NIGHT OR BEING A NIGHT OWL? I normally go to bed around 10 or 11 pm, depending on how I can manage my time.

Then I read something, air my bedroom and finally cuddle against my cushions.

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ONE LAST RITUAL BEFORE THE LIGHTS GO OUT? Before I sleep, I take some time for my ritual of thankfulness. In a notebook I write down all the beautiful experiences of the day I am especially thankful for. This way, I can fall asleep with a good feeling of relaxation and happiness.

# A L P R O N I S TA TIP

Friends for dinner? Why not preparing the traditional quiche with Alpro products?

You find recipes, e.g. for quiche à la mediterranée, at alpro.de 105

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C R E A M Y P A S TA … with pumpkin & sage by

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1 small organic Hokkaido pumpkin (ca. 600g)

1 onion

1 garlic clove

3 tbsp. pumpkin seeds

for

4 SERVINGS

Download

2 tbsp. coconut or peanut oil 1 bunch of sage 1/2 tbsp. Italian herbs 150 ml water 100 ml Alpro plant based alternative to yogurt Plain with Almond 1 tbsp. Cashew puree 500 g Pasta at own choice (e.g. spaghetti, fusilli, farfalle, penne) pepper & salt juice of a lemon optional: 1 piece of parmesan

Wash the pumpkin thoroughly, halve it and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Then cut the pumpkin into cubes of the size of about 1x1 cm.

Peel and finely dice the onion and the garlic clove.

Wash and shake the sage dry, then pluck the leaves from the stalks.

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Roast the pumpkin seeds in a pan without grease at medium heat until they are golden brown and start to smell. Put them aside and let them cool down.

Heat up the oil in a big pot. Put in the sage leaves and roast them for 2-3 minutes until they are crispy.

Then take them out of the oil and put them on a kitchen cloth to let them drip off and cool down.

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Put the onion in the used oil and steam it at at medium heat for about 2 minutes until it’s glassy.

Afterwards, you add the pumpkin cubes and roast them for another 3-4 minutes. Stir them with a wooden spoon regularly.

Reduce the heat, then add the garlic and the herbs.

Roast everything for a short time, then deglaze it with water. Let the covered pumpkin simmer for about 5-7 minutes until it becomes soft.

In the meantime, boil plenty of water with some salt in another pot. Cook the pasta al dente, according to the instructions on the packet.

Add the almond drink and the cashew puree to the pumpkin, stir it well and let it heat up altogether.

Then take the pot from the stove and puree the pumpkin vegetables with a hand blender into a creamy sauce. Season it with salt, freshly grinded black pepper and lemon juice.

Mix the sauce and the hot pasta. Serve it with the sage leaves, the pumpkin seeds and some freshly grated parmesan, if desired.

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N OT L E S S

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A D AY F U L L O F

Inspired to create? Together with the food stylist Katharina Flick, we developed countless ideas for delicious dishes with Alpro for this shoot according to the motto »EAT BETTER - NOT LESS«.

To help you coming up with new ideas, you find all recipes here. Try it yourself and replace traditional cow’s milk or the conventional yoghurt with a vegetable alternative of Alpro!!

Chia pudding with mango mousse WITH ALPRO SOYA ORIGINAL FRESH

Dips with bread & vetetable sticks

WITH ALPRO SIMPLY PLAIN & ALPRO GO ON PLAIN

Smoothie

WITH ALPRO COCONUT ORIGINAL FRESH

Smoothie bowl

WITH ALPRO ALMOND DRINK UNSWEETEND SISTER-MAG.COM

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Quiche

WITH ALPRO RICE CUISINE

Joghurt alternative with fruid & muesli WITH ALPRO VANILLA

Coffee & croissant

E.G. WITH ALPRO SOYA ORIGINAL FRESH

Rasberry tarte

WITH ALPRO GO ON PLAIN

Kohlrabi gratin

WITH ALPRO SOYA CUISINE

Chocolate dessert with caramel popcorn

WITHALPRO DEVILISHLY DARK CHOCOLATE DESSERT

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The Kinfolk phenomenon

the Kinspiracy Text: Tabea Mussgnug

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@jennymustard

MESSIDOR

It is more than likely that we all have had a similar feeling when scrolling through instagram: »I’ve seen that before!« Beautifully decorated café lattes, ice-cream cones and flower bouquets held in front of the camera, carefully arranged suitcase contents, favourite outfits or meals photographed from above (flat lays). And many of these pictures are inspired and shared by one source – the Kinfolk magazine. You may also recognise this magazine through it‘s covers shared on instagram. The ever-present aethetics are shown on the blog . On this THE KINSPIRACY blog, THE KINSPIRACY will post an Instagram with four popular photos from a single Instagram with the link to their account.

More than 800 Instagram users are already on THE KINSPIRACY and each of the pictures tell their own story…

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@ kinfolk

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@ coryiander

»Kinfolk« is a word that some people in this world – and they are getting more and more – pronounce with a kind of awe. This is makes the magazine distinct for people rarely say »Cosmopolitan« or »Men’s Health« with an emotional connection. Though, with Kinfolk, that can happen easily due to the fact that »Kinfolk« is an old, English word that means »relatives«.

In 2016, Kinfolk embodies a whole universe full of stunning photographs, moving texts and beautiful people – both inside and out. In 2011, Kinfolk was founded in the US by Nathan and Katie Williams, along with some of their friends. It was important for them to share what was close to their hearts - showing that there is more to life than having a job with stress and social expectations. They SISTER-MAG.COM

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@considerleonie

stress the importance of taking a break, focusing on the small things in life and spending time with friends for enjoyment. In a time where print media is expected to slowly die out, the creation of a magazine without advertisements, is pretty expensive and only comes out four times a year, was brave, even adventurous, but it was definitely worth it.

MESSIDOR

@ lucylaucht

»Kinfolk« is an old, English word that just means »relatives«.

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Kinfolk is an established style adviser for many, for contributors of the magazine can be found all over the world. Every issue is a small piece of art in itself which is exactly how they present themselves. Their minimalistic design, clear shapes, very generous layouts and ability to get lost in the beautiful photos obviously encourage you to dream and get inspired. Whether it is homemade melon ice-cream in cotton candy pink, high-quality wooden furniture, surreal picture ideas like replacing the icecream in the cone by a vanilla coloured flower – the various photographs are a big part of the style and impression. The topics correspond with the seasonal theme through photos, essays, recipes, interviews with well known chefs, architects and designers, travel tips and interior lifestyle. The audience supports the young creative minds who like to dive into these elegies of wood,

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design, nature and simplicity.

Kinfolk stresses the importance of enjoying the simple parts of life like slowing down and enjoying everyday life. When you observe the matte printed pages with their reduced colours, you feel like your heartbeat slows down a little.

This aesthetically pleasing style is why Kinfolk fans use emotional terms like security, beauty and care to describe their feelings when reading the magazine. But, Kinfolk doesn’t limit it´s platform to just a magazine, it has extended to recipe book »Kinfolk Table«, whose cover resembles more of a Jan Vermeer painting than an ordinary cookbook.

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@kinfolk

@annalaurakummer

119 @annalaurakummer

» Every issue is a small piece of art in itself and that is how they present themselves: minimalistic design, clear shapes, very generous layouts and getting lost in the super duper beautiful photos « SISTERMAG 26 | 10 / 2016

@ herz.und.blut

@ danijelalarsen

@ nataliemasli

@madametamtaaam SISTER-MAG.COM

@ teaandtwigs

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@ herz.und.blut

MESSIDOR

For the people who prefer interior decor over food, »Kinfolk Home« is the perfect option: a book, that features people and their apartments and houses, spread all over the world throughout the Kinfolk community. This doesn´t just take place virtually, but in reality as well! Every month there is a Kinfolk event somewhere in the world, where people meet, eat, talk, make jam or whatever slow living followers enjoy doing for their social life. At these parties, the readers of Kinfolk meet and do activites that reflect the photo featured in the next Kinfolk issue. This way, the magazine steps out of the two-dimensional into the three-dimensional something great and refreshing in comparison to the majority of privately consumed media.

This is why Kinfolk is also polarizing. Despite the impression of being a hipster bible with superficial content, you can see how Kinfolk has earned the

»Kinfolk has its own magic that catches you and makes you want to flip page after page.«

reputation of creating a religionlike community. Under their blanket term, Kinfolkesque, their own Kinfolk-community, Kinfolkmeetups and the Kinfolk-aethetic, causes some skeptics to view the the magazine as a little over the top. Though even if you wonder why people can’t spend an enjoyable evening with their friends without these instructions from Kinfolk, it is hard to deny the magic. Kinfolk captures your attention and makes you want to flip page after page to comfortably sink into their creative world of aesthetic value, friendly communities and a calm lifestyle.

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While browsing through blogs all over the world, you can tell that the number of Kinfolk followers is steadily growing. It is not surprising that as country living has become more trendy, Kinfolk has gained more popularity.

Kinfolk is the Vogue of the country style magazines that reveals how we all long for deceleration and a peaceful afternoon coffee under an apple tree. In all, everyone searching for this beautiful escape has found it in Kinfolk.

@ lucylaucht

@ aureliuscreates

@ ellieatscake

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MESSIDOR

@ lucylaucht

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MESSIDOR

TEXT: ALEX KORDS PHOTOS: LORIS RIZZO

Garden

& THE CITY

Greenery in the concrete dessert

Grey is the predominant colour in the city. Even if there are green areas now and then - they are certainly not made for gardening.

Nevertheless, there are some ways for Townies to grow their own vegetables.

Storey by storey concrete buildings are winding their way up into the sky while the streets below are swamped with cars fuming and honking slowly moving forwards. A city is not the nature enthusiast‘s favorite place.

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Granted, there are the occasional patches of green to be found and parks, as well as the front yards that make a nice change from all the grey stones, but your own piece of meadow or a couple of vegetable patches usually only come with an inner-city mansion which in turn comes with a million euro price tag.

But thankfully, there are a few other ways to become a proper gardener in the urban jungle.

The classic option: An allotment It doesn’t get any more »typically German« than an allotment garden. So it’s no wonder the idea of creating a small garden inside the city was first developed in these parts. It was Landgrave Carl of Hesse who had the first allotments built in Kappeln (then part of Denmark, now a town in the German state of Schleswig-

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Holstein) in the 19th century. At the time, many people moved from the country into towns and cities but then often struggled to find gainful employment and became impoverished The »poor gardens« offered them a chance to both work with their own hands and provide at least basic food for themselves. In German, allotments are known as »Schrebergärten« a name they got from the physician Moritz Schreber. He lived in Leipzig and didn’t actually have any connection to the specific idea of allotments but rather promoted open-air physical education and exercise for children and adolescents; for these, however, the aforementioned poor gardens were used a location.

In 1865, four years after Schreber’s death, a green playground was opened adjacent to the Johannapark in Leipzig and named Schreberplatz after the physician.

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»There are 68.000 inner city gardens and therefore twice as many as in Hamburg.

Another three years later, Heinrich Karl Gesell, a teacher, had the idea of creating flower beds around the playground which were soon after turned into proper gardens – the first Schrebergärten. The building not far from Johannapark from which the gardens were then administrated now houses the Deutsche Kleingärtnermuseum, the German allotment museum.

In its garden you can find a gazebo which was built in 1880 making it one of the oldest of its kind in Germany.

Leipzig is still the unofficial allotment capitol of Germany.

While Berlin takes official first place with 68.000 inner city gardens and Hamburg claims the second spot on the list (with about half as many), Leipzig is a close third. And relative to its population, the city can claim the highest per-head-allotment number with one for almost every 15th citizen. Allotment rents

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MESSIDOR

average around 0.17€ per square meter with prices increasing proportionally with the size of the city. Add to this the allotment association membership dues and overheads like electricity and insurance and you’ll end up at an average total of 373€ per year (according to the German Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning). So for a little over one euro per day you’re all set up to start growing the ingredients for your vegetable soup or fruit salad all by yourself; and you won’t 129

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have to rush to make it to the florist’s before closing time for gran’s next birthday. It’s also the perfect place to unwind from a stressful day at work and chat to your fellow gardeners. And there are even further reaching social aspects and allotments really do their bit as it comes to integration: around 75,000 inner-city gardens in Germany are rented out to migrants and there are more than 100 intercultural projects going on nationwide which provide an opportunity for people of different nationalities to come together.

If you can’t or don‘t want to set aside a euro per day but are lucky enough to have an apartment with a balcony you can always start a garden right there.

offer a great selection. Small spaces profit from vessels that don’t stand on the ground but are instead suspended to make the best use of your balcony’s height. Hanging baskets, plant pockets and vertical gardens are just three options. In the latter – as the name suggests – seeds are planted on the wall. With a basic talent for crafts you can easily fashion the base for such a garden yourself using either a euro pallet or individual wooden boxes.

Even the most unusual vision of a balcony garden can be made a reality with a hammer, some nails and pieces of wood and – voilá your own individual flower boxes.

Make sure to line all your boxes with plastic sheets before filling them with soil though. With a bit of clever planning you’ll even be able to fit in a sitting area and a place to store your watering can, rake and other utensils.

Because of the limited space this takes some clever planning starting with your choice of containers. From raised flower beds to pots of all shapes and sizes, your local DIY store will

Whatever your plans for your individual balcony garden may be, keep in mind that boxes, plants and especially the soil itself have a significant weight. So you will have to check with your landlord

The minimalistic option: a green balkony

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or the architect for permanent loads up to which weight your balcony is suitable. And of course your balcony needs to get enough sunlight. Southeastern or southwestern exposures are ideal. And if there is a breeze in the bargain you’ll be ready to get gardening.

Not all kinds of vegetables are suitable for a balcony, especially if you’re a beginner at growing your own food. Start with fast-growing fruits that do not require a lot of care, like tomatoes or cucumbers, bell pepper, carrots or radishes – in other words, exactly the kinds of vegetables you usually buy at the supermarket. Lamb’s lettuce is the ideal balcony leaf but also purple lettuce and arugula work well. They all worship the sun and don’t need a parasol or alternative constructions erected

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to provide shade. Herbs are a very different matter, though, and should be grown in an – at least – semi-shaded spot. Pick the right place and you’ll also be able to pick just about any herb: chives, dill, basil, parsley, lemon balm – who wouldn’t want to sprinkle a nice slice of bread or a salad with herbs grown on their own balcony? Overgrown and unused green spaces are a common sight in most cities. Excessive weed growth does not usually make for a nice view but rather lays waste to spaces that could be

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used much more sensibly. Which we are happy to report, is exactly what is now happening thanks to a phenomenon referred to as urban gardening.

The pragmatic Option: Urban Gardening This term covers just about any activity people take up in order to create new flower beds and care for those already set up.

These newly founded gardens are usually freely accessible to anyone and passers-by are often invited to help themselves to fruits from the trees or vegetables fresh from the beds. These activities are based on and facilitated by a fair treatment of nature and one another.

Willful destruction and excessive self-service are both taboo and the idea is that if you intend to take fruit from the garden once

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they are ripe you put in your fair share of work and also care to get them there.

There are more than 500 urban gardening projects in Germany which the anstiftung & ertomis trust has put on a map . Many of these projects receive initial funding from local authorities but try to become self-reliant very quickly. in the Berlin Himmelbeet borough of Wedding is one successful example. Established on the premises of a former car park near Leopoldplatz in 2013 it now consists of 50 communal and 150 rental patches. The latter are rented out to individuals or institutions like preschools by season.

The cafĂŠ, opened in 2015, offers fruit dishes prepared using food grown on the communal patches.

It is housed in a building made solely from disused euro pallets and clay which has received an award from the Association of German Architects.

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One form of urban gardening cleverly combines the growing of specific foods with a political protest.

Known as guerilla gardening, it involves activists creating vegetable patches in disused urban spaces in covert, SISTER-MAG.COM

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usually night time, operations.

The activists’ weapon of choice is the so-called seed ball (also referred to as earth ball) which consists of soil, clay and seeds. It can be both easily dropped in passing or hurled

into inaccessible areas. While seed balls don’t usually yield a decent vegetable harvest they still serve their purpose in that they help make the city a little bit greener.

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PHotos: AnnyCK Illustrations: Emma Block Videos: Onn Halpern Location: StudiolichtstraĂ&#x;e Catering: Kunz Mahl Production: sisterMAG (Nuna Hausmann & Lena Holzer, Marie Darme & Songie Yoon, Cristopher Santos)

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Prints, Balloons & PHotoBooks A day filled with flowers, balloons, and inspiration for DIY projects.

Our #sistermaglovescewe event in September 2016 in the name of Âťcollecting memories and saving themÂŤ. A report.

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OPHISTICATED CHILDREN’S BIRTHDAY PARTY

That’s what we declared as our motto to make the blogger event with CEWE a truly unforgettable experience. But how could we achieve that – creating this feeling of pure joy you get when everything is exquisitely decorated and it’s just about having fun and a great time? For us, our memories of those days when we were little and still had chocolate smeared all over our faces, led us to balloons, glitter, pom poms and handicraft work. At the same time, we wanted to create an atmosphere in which our participants would be inspired and also able to relax. For that, we needed some truly delicious food and a schedule alluring for both heart and brain – simply sophisticated.

As soon as we had all of these basic ingredients, we just had to find the right location to let our untameable lust for designing and decorating go wild. We found it in Studio Lichtstraße, a place in the beautiful neighbourhood of Ehrenfeld, Cologne. A white, bright room, ready to let our pastel-coloured dreams come true and surrounded by steely industrial architecture inviting us to pull out our cameras.

Now all we needed were enthusiastic guests – and the day could begin!

Participant Patricia Kaiser, from the-kaisers.de, shares her impressions of the two days. Her text will be marked by her initials: PK In between you will learn about the teachers and content of the workshops we held during the day.

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We also printed the banners at cewe-print.de !

Always the right gift: a printed photo as a reminder of beautiful days!

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@keepupwiththejonesfamily

We created some mousepads at cewe-fotoservice.de with our special illustrations from Emma Block

@youandidiy

@keepupwiththejonesfamily

Perfect for the best Instagram-Postings: expanded plastic slab with photos

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aK Patrici

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MY »SISTERMAG LOVES CEWE« WEEKEND FROM PATRICIA KAISER THE-KAISERS.DE My first time at photokina – can a photographer with a 5-year job experience even admit that? I've never been a great fan of fairs.

But when the sisterMAG team invited the Kaiser family – my husband Stefan and me – to a weekend at the photokina with CEWE, my release finger prickled. A whole weekend devoted to photography and aesthetics? Let me through, I'm a photographer!

So a few weeks later, I found myself in a loft in the Cologne district of Ehrenfeld and caught myself and many other blogger girls attempting to close our mouths again. In the evening, I would detect that I used the adjective »beautiful« about 30 times in my snapchat story. But how could you calm down when the room is decorated with countless pastel balloons, when one area of the room offers the most beautiful photo props and flowers and when even the food looks too beautiful to be eaten (which I did though because it tasted outrageously good). Long story short: I felt like I was in heaven – without even a little bit of exaggeration.

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Click here to watch the Behind The Scenes video

@tweedandgreet

But it didn't stop at the visual impressions that day – my head was also fed with lots of inspirations and knowledge. This feeding started right after the welcome of Thea and Toni, the two sisterMAG sisters. Because they made everything possible in order to serve us the creme de la creme of creativity on a silver platter.

The American blogger Brittany who realizes the craziest DIYs on her blog »The House That Lars Built« betrayed some blogger secrets and did not only tell us the story behind her blog but also why cooperation and sharing knowledge and creativity are so important.. [P. 154]

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The balloon arch was clustered with postcards of DIY projects. An artwork for itself to fall in love with J

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Brittany

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n o s p e J n o s t a W y n Britta One house, many ideas: A portrait of the creative DIY blogger Brittany

Brittany didn’t aspire to become a blogger. The term didn’t exist when she was deciding on a career path. And once they did, they were mommy bloggers writing personal essays about ordinary things and she wasn’t interested in living such a public life. Sharing her creative work didn’t occur to her until she was put into a situation where she had limited work options.

Brittany started blogging while she studied interior design in graduate school. For a residential design class project, she invented a fictional family based on her real life father, SISTER-MAG.COM

whose alias growing up was Lars. She created a blog for the family so they could track the progress of their house and called it www.thehouse­that­ larsbuilt.com .

Although she only had 100 readers at the time, she created new articles every day after the project was finished.

Ultimately, her collected DIY ideas found a place and her creativity found an outlet.

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Brittany

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Realizing the growing power of blogs she decided to invest her time and energy into her 2010 wedding creating hundreds of paper flowers and other handmade elements. Her wedding circulated onto the many wedding blogs and entered the scene just as Pinterest emerged.

Overnight she was getting asked to contribute DIY projects to various websites.

While living in Copenhagen from 2010-2012, she was unable to work in the country and started to treat her blog as a job, creating daily content. She continued to pour her energy into her DIY projects and when she returned to the USA in 2012, the first of many partnership requests poured in and the search

for a »real job« was eventually forgotten.

Today, she is a full-time blogger and YouTuber and publishes an inspiring craft idea every day.

The initially shy Brittany who didn’t like to share pictures of herself and talk about private stuff became a confident DIY blogger who feels as comfortable in a hot dog costume as she does while interacting privately in her community. Today, four assistants help her realize her extensive projects and large client base.

In her kickoff speech at the CEWE event in Cologne she told us how she keeps her creativity fresh and where she gets new inspiration for her numerous projects.

What do you do in order to stay creative?

I realized after my trip to Germany and Paris that I wasn’t doing my best to stay creative. I was approaching my work as a machine rather than as an artistic endeavor. Since my trip I’ve been pouring over my library of art books and letting old sources inform my work. I also collected interior magazines on my trip to bring back home with me.

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Brittany

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How do you find new ideas for your DIY projects?

DIY project ideas come from a variety of sources. One way I love finding new ideas is when I work with sponsors. I actually quite love doing sponsored projects because I often have to use my creativity to come up with a project that works in my vocabulary that perhaps I didn’t think I could. It pushes me to do original work. Sometimes I find new ideas by accident. For example, one time my niece had a balloon garland in her room. It was done in lovely sorbet shades.

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For some reason I thought that the balloons looked like fruits on a line and so that informed my next project: Fruit-balloons-garland .

Other ideas come from getting inspired by a certain material and figuring out all the ways that material can be used. Then I put it into a setting that works for my brand. And voila!

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What inspires you?

I’m inspired by a number of things but most recently my trip to Germany! New settings bring about new color palettes, new tastes, new graphics, new lettering, new fashions. I couldn’t help but note all the new sensations I was experiencing. In general I’m very much inspired by the fashion scene.

I love incorporating the catwalk into smaller home projects.

How-to crepp paper flower

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DAY 1

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PK Did anybody say ÂťcreativityÂŤ? That's the perfect transition to the practical part of the day! sisterMAG and CEWE planned three workshops for us that we successively completed in small groups.

Stefan and I started with my supreme discipline: photography. Together with David of mysnaptrip, we discovered the hidden places of Cologne Ehrenfeld and exchanged views on perspectives, light and lenses. Even though I am used to taking pictures everywhere when I travel, I looked for interesting motives in a more conscious way that day and photographed feathers on the ground, ceilings of bridges and poster walls.

[P. 163]

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PHoto tour

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our phototour Video here

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Workshop 1 : PHototour For the first workshop of our event – a photo tour through Cologne – we were very happy to have wedding photographer David Grigo with us. »Out of pleasure for explaining and talking about our hobby«, David and his business partner Julian Weiser founded the company FotografieKurs.Köln . In the streets of the city by the river Rhine they share their love for photography with beginners and advanced photographers.

What made me offer photo tours through Cologne? One of the main reasons is the flood of information that many beginners are confronted with – and that can make them loose their love for photography: The internet provides countless possibilities in discovering photography for oneself. It is very hard to pick the right information from these millions of posts.

Individual challenges usually only add to the confusion. This is exactly where we come in: with structured and grounded knowledge in an easily understandable way.

Through my passion for technology and love for Cologne, I could meet our participants’ needs in both of these topics. The first tour led them through the neighbourhood Ehrenfeld, along graffiti coloured walls and impressive industrial architecture. During that, the participants learned everything, they wanted to know and could try immediately, from auto focus to the correct settings. On the last tour, the participants had the chance to capture the dome of Cologne and the skyline in the golden light of the setting sun.

After the tour, a long line formed in front of the instant photo station by CEWE. The participants were eager to hold their photographic results in hands.

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photo tour

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There was a lot of talking about photography in general as well as the specific problems and questions of each participant. One of them, for example, had made some negative experiences with photography courses before: the workshop was supposed to teach the basics of photography, but the course leader’s explanations were only referring to his small automatic camera and therefore didn’t help her at all.

I took the chance to explain the basics of the functioning of a camera: Generally, every camera is simply a darkened box. On one side, there is a light sensitive sensor, on the other side there is an objective through which the light falls onto the sensor across from it. All the rest is only to enable the correct lighting on the sensor through various settings.

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In the beginning it is totally fine not to know very much about the camera and just use the automatic mode.ÂŤ As the next step, David suggests the P-mode, also known as program automatic mode, that every camera offers. The camera regulates the aperture and shutter speed. The ISO-value can be set manually or automatically by the camera. If the picture is still too dark or too bright, there is the possibility to influence this automaticity with the exposure correction. This is usually shown by a +/- symbol. That makes the picture lighter or darker.

The next possibility form further control on your camera is the A- or Av-mode. With this, you can set the aperture of the camera for example to achieve further blurriness with small aperture values.

I used this mode in a little portrait shoot with participant Linda. With a small aperture of f1.8 in A-mode, I was able to fully concentrate on the shoot: the camera automatically detected all the settings needed for the correct exposure and set them. This is how the low depth of focus was perfectly used for a

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portrait with the open aperture of f1.8. To create a soft surrounding light with few contrasts, I chose a location in the shade. This is how the harsh and much too bright sunlight could be avoided. Linda’s face was evenly exposed. To lighten up small shadows in her face, the participants used a small reflector.

In a portrait, the focus point should always be on the front eye. This is the part that the viewer should look at first.

It is also important that the background is not distracting: Bright colours or irritating patterns should be avoided.

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Have a look at the result of this little course in portraits here.

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right: Patricia Kaiser

left: @tweedandgreet

photo tour AD

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The big advantage of the aperture automatic/A-mode: I had to focus less on the technical details and could talk to Linda more. It is important to give the model in front of the camera precise directions instead of hiding behind the camera. This is about a personal connection between photographer and model.

The better they get along, the

better the results will be. Hand signs are a good mean for that.

But the most important aspect that we want to transport in all of our courses is the following: The technology is important to receive a picture.

But it can never replace your own imagination. A good preparation is the foundation of every photo shoot.

David

www.fotografie-kurs.koeln

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A photo wall with the DIY projects of Brittany & Nic, which was completed by the participants.

Because next to it there was the CEWE Instant PhotoPrinter, which was busy printing the whole day.

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PK

Back to the loft, the workshops continued and we could experiment with the photo props and the sea of flowers in the mentioned part of the room.

But before I could create my own still life in the styling workshop, Anastasia Benko of »Stilzitat« told us the basic design principles that not only work for still lifes but also for many other areas. The design principles confirmed many things I’ve already implemented instinctively before – but they inspired me to new ideas. Just browsing through the CEWE with Anastasia’s PHOTOBOOK work was pure inspiration.

As inspired as I was, I started working, printed out one of my Instagram pictures at the instant photo station and used it as the basis for a still life. This kind of creative romping was according to my taste. I could have spent hours there. [P. 174]

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Stilllife

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here our Still-life Workshop video

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Workshop 2 : Still-life

The second workshop was led by Anastasia Benko, who is a stylist, artist and owner of a vintage shop. Her main style objects are botanical elements, art and interesting vintage objects. She uses everything what her surrounding has to offer and is a passionate collector of plants, flowers and fruits. She studied art history and with her knowledge in retail she opened her online shop »Stilzitat« . In her shop she offers carefully curated vintage pieces and design objects. Through her work with the online shop she developed her own visual vocabulary.

Additionally she also works as a interior photographer and for different online magazines.

» I remember vividly how I started getting into product photography. I had already been dedicated to artistically inspired hobby photography for two thirds of my life.« When I started working for an online shop and had to create professional product photography and interior styling, that initially meant a big challenge for me.

Those of you who tried before to capture a beautiful moment or a neat still life in a photo, will probably be familiar with these difficulties to begin with. This is exactly how I felt.

The conception problems seemed unsurmountable. Firstly, I couldn’t understand it – how could I master amateurish and artistic subjects but not the precise photographic composition with products? Even if in my head, I knew exactly what my

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Stilllife

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pictures were supposed to look like.

Why didn’t my product photography look exactly as I had envisioned it?

That was my inner motivation to passionately dive into the topics of photography and styling.

A question of styling Back then, I had no clue that I was much closer to the solution to my problems than I thought. Many stylists involve a big part of their personal observations into their creative and practical work. Little by little, I remembered the things that I learnt throughout the years and this is how the design principles of a successful art composition that I learned during my studies in art history, became past of my artistic development.

Part of these design principles, that I presented during my workshops, include composition, contrast and colour theories. All these terms are very abstract, but – once translated into common practice –

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they make sense. When I started to systematically apply the methods I had learned, my photographs and styling improved dramatically!

The everyday use of design principles leads to something magical: by now, I had internalized the theories and started to unconsciously arrange thing.

Photography and styling turned into something close to my heart.

This is a story that I really wanted to share. I am often asked, how my photographs are created and I am very thankful, that I now have the chance to share these experiences.

Workshopdevelopment In occasion of the photokina I got the chance to develop three workshops with CEWE and sisterMAG around the topic »photography and styling«.

During those, I presented »8 global design-principles«, that helped me a lot with the development of my own imagery. I am very grateful for my colleague, Cris, for his amazing

and qualified support during the workshops.

Our teamwork turned out to work perfectly: Cris was with the workshop participants when it came to technical questions and support and I could focus on the stylistic instructions. To me, there is nothing better than holding my own pictures in a printed version! This is also the reason why I mostly work towards developing my pictures after their completion. Most photographs that we look at these days, only appear on a digital format. That is sad, as some great photographs just cannot be understood that way and atmospheric artworksslip away from us.

One of my personal highlights this time was to work with already done products as we had several photobooks, posters, polaroid pictures and photos printed, to be able to use them during the workshops. One of them was an XL-photobook – with my photographs! To hold this book in hands was a very special moment

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to me! Thanks to these printed examples the motivation seemed to grow endlessly: everyone as eager on creating something great, to be able to print it afterwards, hold our works in hands or simply admire them. This is how we started getting to work after a small theoretical excursion.

Songie from the sisterMAG team shows the participants how she made the photobook out of Anastasias blog pictures with the CEWE software . Down: Brittany looks through Anastasias photo book

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As an overview for the participants, I had created multiple stations within the studio that were separated by different colour themes. While building these, I made sure that every station had the right props to pick up my theories. I would like to introduce one of these in more detail: colour harmony.

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Stilllife

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playing with colours The term colour harmony is a part of colour studies and means the composition of matching colours that create a balanced and and to the human eye appealing order.

Personal impressions obviously play a big role when it comes to choosing the colours, as they make a big impression on us and even influence our sub consciousness.

A successful colour composition immediately speaks to the viewer and makes us feel balanced and comfortable. Competing colours can lead to the opposite and seem very chaotic. Working with colour harmonies is a popular method in the marketing sector, where examples can be found in web as well as package design.

Making the right choices Using colour harmonies in room decoration has been a strong mean of interior designers for ages. The areas of use are basically limitless.

In practice, a colourfully harmonic picture is created by one base colour with various different hues added.

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Monochrome colour harmony: Only one colour is used. To create more depth in a still life, different shades and intensities of the same colour are chosen (for example light red via red to dark red) and are mixed up with black and white.

Analogue colour harmony: The chosen colours are next to each other on the colour wheel (for example orange, yellow, light yellow). It is very similar to the monochromatic designs, but by combining various shades, more design options are opening up.

The outcome!

The dark photos of the CEWE print underline the general mood of the Claudia Gรถdke photo book beautifully and are nicely supported by the props in corresponding colours.

A styling by Maren (Minzawillsommer ) appeals with the reduced colour scheme and gives room to the book that otherwise would have been almost invisible.

Another example is the styling by Patricia and Stefan Kaiser (the-kaisers.de ), who used the possibilities of the CEWE photo station to feature their own photographs as part of the still life.

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Complementary colour harmony: You can find this case in nature, where colours, that are across from each other on the colour wheel, appear together (for example green and red). That makes the individual colours shine more.

Colour harmonies can become a strong design element and all the other featured design principles worked as small supports. Of course, you shouldn’t consider these as a strict rule book: wonderful pictures can develop when you listen to your intuition and follow your guts when photographing and styling.

Here, I created a selected photographic collection with styling that the participants developed throughout three workshops. During the day, hundreds of beautiful pictures were taken. While selecting the photographs, I chose to only show the ones that revolve around colour harmonies.

Anastasia SISTER-MAG.COM

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Look at the book: Toni looks down on the CEWE photobook of Anastasia made with premium paper.

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PK

A The best things come in threes, and that’s why we went to the DIY table at the gallery after we had a short coffee break (you should have tried the espresso mousse or the plum crumble!).

The colorful Brittany and the cool Nic of waited the blog »Luzia Pimpinella« for us. So we sat on the round table in a cozy atmosphere, beautified wooden photo boxes and made paper flowers. To be honest: Making paper flowers will not become a new field of my self-employment.

Because even Stefan’s flowers looked more beautiful than mine that rather looked like an accident than a paper flower.

Well, nobody can do everything.

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The variety of CEWE products: art prints, postcards, mousepads and cellphone covers – everything personalized!

The day came to its end, and we exchanged views, printed the pictures of the day on the photo station, had one or two of the ridiculously delicious drinks of Cris and enthused again over the table decoration at dinner and the food itself. After we had an unintentional city tour of Cologne – looking for a parking garage –, I fell into bed tiredly but with a head full of impressions and slept like a log. [p. 184]

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DIY

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here our DIY Workshop video

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Workshop 3 : DIY The third workshop was held by the DIY expert Brittany Watson (who you got to know the pages before) and Nic Hildebrandt from LuziaPimpinella.com. What Nic has to say about herself:

55 passionate traveler, enthusiastic photographer 55 DIYer, fervent foodie 55 freelance content creator 55 author of the lifestyle & travel blog luziapimpinella.com

»What I especially like about being a blogger is being part of a big international community of unique and creative people.

That's why I was looking forward to the »sisterMAG loves CEWE« blogger event with a DIY workshop that took place during the photokina.«

The thing is: We share our ravenous passion and creativity for personal things, for the issues that occupy and delight us. They are not necessarily the same but they are similar. And that's a wonderful basis for being creative!

I was even more excited because I've been working together with CEWE for a while now and write a photo column called »Momentchenmal!« (»One moment, please!«) as a guest author for the CEWE OnlineMagazin . The fact that Brittany Watson of »The House that Lars would attend the DIY built« workshops as a guest made the event really exceptional for me.

The people who entered the sundrenched studio Lichtstrasse that Saturday instantly felt inspired by the location. A flood of pastel balloons, lots of flowers and props for a subsequent photo styling, colorful photo walls and DIY materials. So much love down to the smallest detail! Isn't this what every blogger tries to do for their blog? Creating an environment that inspires the visitor, the reader, in

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Leporello-Box with Retro Prints which they feel good and what they can take tips and suggestions from?

And that was our objective for that day. In this wonderful and relaxed surrounding, we crafted a photo box with a folded book (»Leporello«).

(You find a DIY instruction for our photo album in a wooden box in this issue of sisterMAG - have fun if you want to try it yourself!) In these times when, thanks to digital photography, the singular picture has a forgotten existence on the masses of hard drives, computers SISTER-MAG.COM

and smartphones it’s nice to hold a photo print in your hand and to work with it analogically. The participants of the workshop all agreed in that!

A photo box with a folded book inside is not only a creative way of storing beloved photos. Next to the small foldable photo album, I also like to fill a box like this with a nice present that needs a beautiful packaging. Coupons and gifts of money can be handed over with style in a handmade photo box.

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I like the idea of integrating a coupon or a banknote, next to the photos, into the folded book. This way, giving away a simple »paper snippet« is way more beautiful!

Patrick Rembe, the content marketing manager of CEWE and a charismatic guy, thought about the photo as a digital mass product and the value of a singular picture in his article »Ein Plädoyer für das (»A plea for the photo«).

Foto« His thoughts speak to me from the heart although the digital picture is my daily business as a blogger.

as simple but practical and very pretty photo hangers with wooden beads and a metal clip. Brittany who is the »queen of paper flowers« for me created colorful paper flowers made of crepe paper with Allen. Very spontaneously, we assembled our DIY ideas to get a harmonic entity although they didn’t have anything in common at first sight.

That’s how I made the photo box that day: A wooden box, decorated with colorful paper, a photo and a small paper flower – well, a modest attempt of making a paper I think that we should hold a real chrysanthemum. Inside: A pink photo print in our hands and do folded book to pull out, decorated something creative with it once in a with wonderful, flowery CEWE while… and waive the constant view Retro Prints . through the lens and on the display and the countless »Click, click, click!« and just enjoy the moment with our own eyes. That’s what we did in a big round that day. We ignored our cameras for once (the charming Fotografin ­ANNY CK took wonderful photos for us). Me and the other bloggers crafted photo boxes with a folded book for beautiful CEWE retro prints as well

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DIY

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DAY 1

The participants received their own pictures from their bloga & Instagram Feeds as Retro Prints : neatly stowed in nice small boxes from CEWE

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some CEWE Retro Prints SISTER-MAG.COM

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A nice gift idea – also when you need a package made with love for a coupon or a gift of money. All the other participants created their own interpretations of a photo box, beyond my example. That’s what I love so much about DIYs! Almost every time, things emerge that originally weren’t planned that way. Creativity develops and unfolds – like the paper flowers of Brittany.

For me, the medium »photo« offers so many ideas for DIY – especially when you hold it in your hands as a print and not only look at it digitally. Because of this, I plea for the printed photo! Again and again, it inspires me to DIY ideas, like this photo-display , that was made of a trellis for flowers and some foldback clips. Or these clipboards with blackboardpaint for a changing photo gallery because I can never decide which pictures are my

favorites just now. Other creative bloggers share my enthusiasm for photo DIYs, like Papagena who shared her magical photo garland in the form of a pennant chain as a guest blogger on my blog. I hope that I shared a little bit of inspiration for photo DIYs with the participants of the workshops that day and that they liked the little photo box projects. Because the ideas that come up when you work with photos analogously instead of digitally are diverse.

As diverse as the exciting blogger personalities who came together on this wonderful day at the »sisterMAG loves CEWE« event.

Your Nic

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on our way to photokina

DAY 2

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After a delicious breakfast in the hotel Hopper St. Josef that was a chapel once, we went to photokina. Just when we set foot on the fair grounds and sighted the first booths, my heart started thumping. No fair ever triggered this feeling in me, and although I’ve never been that interested in the technical component of photography, I became nervous.

PK

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@frauliebstes

Countless tables with products, themed worlds and living room alcoves with

inspirations delighted me, and instead of drinking coffee with the others I sneaked back after a small guided tour and touched the different kinds of paper of the photo books. As a photographer, I already created photo books for my customers and myself, and now I wanted to take the opportunity to see and feel everything in real-life and in color. Because the internet doesn’t offer the possibility to

touch the products yet. I already mentioned that I’m not a big fan of fairs.

The main reason for that is that the product range overwhelms me and that I wander around like a lost chicken. But on the photokina I didn’t have to be a chicken because sisterMAG photographer Cris who had proven his skills as a barkeeper the night before safely led all of us blogger chickens over the photokina and showed us the highlights he had researched carefully before. Nobody could have done that better than Cris because he not only fed us with a lot of information but also constantly made us laugh by telling jokes or singing into

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@mammilade

First of all, we visited the CEWE booth – well, it rather was a whole hall than a booth.

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our radio headsets. In 1.5 hours, Cris showed us the latest photography trends and products at the photokina.

Adult men turned into small children in a toy store, and I also got excited about the 360° Action Camera by Nikon, the Hasselblad True Zoom Motorola and the Osmo Mobile by DJI. Especially for the latter, I could imagine buying this novelty in order to expand our photography and film repertoire.

After a last snack in the CEWE lounge and the mandatory group picture, the weekend came to an end, and my head almost exploded because of all the impressions. I subscribed to new Instagram pages and wistfully said goodbye to my new acquaintances.

Thanks a lot to CEWE and the sisterMAG team for this great weekend!

Patricia

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»Storytelling works best with CEWE« That's the company’s motto of CEWE that's been devoted to the joy of photos since 1961. The company that was founded in Oldenburg has 3,200 employees at 12 locations in Europe and is the European market leader in photo service.

But CEWE does not only print photos but offers a vast range of photoproducts as well, like cups, smartphone cases, calendars, jigsaw puzzles or photos on a canvas. The best-selling product of the company is clearly the CEWE , that was ordered FOTOBUCH almost six million times last year.

Warentest made it the winner of its test in 2015. The company enables its customers to transform digital photos into haptic products or their own DIY projects. At the blogger event we hosted together

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with CEWE on September 24 in Cologne, everything was about realizing photo projects with the most beautiful photos of the invited bloggers.

The company's founder Heinz Neumüller couldn't think of that when he developed black-andwhite films in his small lab in Oldenburg.

It's a technique that CEWE still offers today but is used less. Even though the analogue photography has a revival today, digital photos are developed and photo products are created more often. The goal

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@tweedandgreet of CEWE is to keep the steps from the photo to the finished products as easy as possible and to enable creativity and individuality. That's why CEWE developed a special software for the versatile ways of designing photo books. Thanks to the simple handling and additional design effects, it enables everybody to create photo books following their own ideas. If you rather like to edit and order your photos on the smartphone you can easily do that with the CEWE Apps . So we craft more with photos, decorate our apartments with the pictures of our loved ones and keep our unique moments for eternity instead of leaving them in the digital dust.

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Patrick from the CEWE team explains the different qualities of photo paper of the CEWE PHOTOBOOK

The CEWE stand at photokina offered a lot of inspiration for your home SISTER-MAG.COM

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Freude in der Box Beim CEWE Event wartete natürlich auch eine prall gefüllte Goody Bag auf unser Gäste. Unsere Idee war, das passende Motto von CEWE für die diesjährige photokina aufzunehmen: Freude am Foto. Deshalb haben wir Gadgets gesucht, die unsere Freude an unseren eigenen Aufnahmen noch erhöhen können: Ein Blitzlicht und Objektive für das Handy, damit Schnappschüsse mit dem Smartphone noch besser werden. Wer dann doch eine richtige Kamera dabei hat, konnte sich über den stylischen Camera-Strap freuen, der jede Kamera zum Styling-Accessoire macht. Die Freude am Foto kann natürlich nur entstehen, wenn man das Meisterwerk auch zum Leben erweckt: Wie wäre es zum Beispiel in Form von Tasse, Sticker, Kalender oder ausgedruckt als Retro Print? Diese gabs als Inspiration in unserer Box gleich mit dazu.

Oder lieber gleich in ein DIY Projekt verwandeln? Spätestens seit Pinterest ist der Scrapbooking Trend auch in Deutschland angekommen. Damit die Bilder der Blogger als Erinnerung verarbeitet werden können, haben wir Washi-Tape, Bänder und Klebethe motto Garn pick was to ideagelegt.

TheBag buchstaben in die Goody Auch dasupwunderbare CEWE had chosen for this year’s von Garn und Mehr (https://www.garn-und-mehr.de/), lässt sich Photo photokina:Für schön mit Bildern verwenden. die Delight. freundliche Kooperation bedanken wir uns nochmal ganz besonders. Versehen mit einem heliumgefüllten Luftballon als Namensschild, wartete auf die Teilnehmer eine Box voller Freude am gedruckten Bild.

the Goodie Box

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We had been looking for gadgets that would raise joy about one’s own snapshots even more, like a flashlight and an object lens for the smartphone. Those who brought a proper photo camera with them enjoyed the stylish camera strap that turns every camera into a fashionable accessory.

But there can only be real joy about a picture if you bring your masterpiece to life. So how about a tea cup, some stickers, a calendar or a Retro Print, just to name some examples? That’s what we chose to put inside the box as an inspiration.

Or how about turning your pictures into a DIY project? The latest in Germany is the scrapbooking trend that has arrived here through Pinterest. To inspire the bloggers on how to turn their pictures into memories, we’ve also put some

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Click here to get directly to the cewe-fotoservice.de page to order

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washi tapes, ribbons and adhesive letters inside the box, as well as the marvellous thread by Garn von which can be Garn und Mehr used to create beautiful things with pictures. We would especially like to thank our partners for the pleasant cooperation. Labelled with a helium balloon with their name on it, our guests each had a beautiful box waiting for them, that was filled with many photo pleasures.

DOWNLOAD ILLUSTRATIONS EMMA BLOCK

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Blogposts about the #sisterMAGlovesCEWE Event

Fräulein Lampe

House That Lars Built

Ginger Lilly Tea

Travel Mad Mum

So Leben Wir

Luzia Pimpinella

Tweed & Greet

Sparkle & Sand

Mammi­ lade

Scrap Impulse

Keep up with the Jones fam.

Frau Liebstes

Pfefferminzgrün

Emilia & die Detektive

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At the end it only remains to say: Thank you! Thanks to all the people involved and to our partner CEWE for a fantastic event in Cologne!

From the location to the catering we could rely on everyone and the team worked perfectly together - from cutting wire for a gigantic balloon arch to cleaning till late at night. The biggest thanks goes out to our participants, who came with open hearts and had so much fun during the workshops. This is why we want to share with you all the blogposts that have been gone live since the event!

See you at the next photokina!

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#27 PREVIEW

We are excited to hear how you liked the new publication rhythm and all the information and articles around »Soil and Harvest«.

You can also send us your feedback in an email to mail@sister-mag.com! We are looking forward to the next sisterMAG issue that will be all about »Wood and Fire« and will be published at the end of october 2016.

WOOD & FIRE

S TA R T S I N L AT E OCTOBER 2016

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At the end of October we will start with the most festive issue of the year: Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving they will all find a place in our »Wood and Fire« issue! Complimented by many sisterMAG topics like a look at fire women or a look at the science of colour development and psychology, we will talk about the scent of wood and the unknowns of the element »fire«! As usual, you can follow all our behind the scenes activities on IG stories!

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IMPRINT SISTERMAG – JOURNAL FOR THE DIGITAL LADY w w w. s i st e r - m a g . co m

Chief Editor

Theresa Neubauer

Operations

Nadine Steinmetz (Operations Dir.), Laura Glabbatz & Sandra Rothfeld

Fashion

Eva-Maria Neubauer

Design

Theresa Neubauer (Art Dir.), Marie Darme, Dana Lungmuss, Songie Yoon, Hannah Müller-Hillebrand

Contributing Editor (Text)

Anastasia Benko, Nina Förster, Laura Glabbatz, David Grigo, Nuna Hausmann, Nic Hildebrandt, Lena Holzer, Patricia Kaiser, Alexander Kords, Tabea Mussgnug, Theresa Neubauer, Franziska Winterling

Contributing (Food)

Katharina Flick

Contributing Editor (Photo)

Saskia Bauermeister, Anny CK, Karin Klammer, Loris Rizzo, Cris Santos, Jules Villbrandt

Contributing Editor (Video) Styling Illustration Translation

Proof

Onn Halpern Eva-Maria Neubauer, Hürriyet Bulan Tanja Cappell, Jeannette Mokosch Alexander Kords, Christian Naethler, Tanja Timmer, Franziska Winterling Alexander Kords, Antje Ritter, Claire Cunningham, Christian Naethler, Elisabeth Stursberg.

Published bi-monthly by Carry-On Publishing GmbH, Gustav-Meyer-Allee 25, 13355 Berlin, Germany. Re-use of content is only allowed with written permission of the publisher. There is no liability for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. The Carry-On-Publishing GmbH assumes no liability or guarantee for the accuracy, currency and completeness of the information provided. All information is provided without warranty.

Contact: mail@sister-mag.com Management Sales Marketing

Antonia Sutter, Theresa Neubauer, Alex Sutter Alex Sutter (Sales Dir.) Antonia Sutter (Marketing Dir.), Luisa Sancelean

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