How are you all? Did you have a good week? I am on the second day of a long weekend and enjoying all the plans made for it: dinners with friends and family, date lunch with my favourite person, possibly going to see a movie, reading and most of all relaxing. There will probably also be some day dreaming and plan making for my holidays next month.
Here are a few links for you to enjoy this weekend:

- Something interesting: this couple lives in a very unusual building and interior designed a wonderful apartment in it.

- Something delicious: this steak and avocado salad sounds incredibly appetising and I look forward to making it.

- Some other delicious thing: I loved getting those French pastries at the boulangerie when I lived in France and I think I will give this recipe a go.

- Somewhere to visit: these food halls sound incredible and a little something tells me I might be paying them a visit soon enough.

- A TV series: I quite enjoyed watching the French series Call My Agent on Netflix and I hear a third season is in the making, so exciting!

Another day, another rice pudding. I told you all about how much I enjoy this childhood dessert of mine last month and even shared a recipe for chocolate rice pudding with poached pear and praline.
This time, what I want to share with you is a wonderfully creamy vanilla rice pudding topped with caramelised apples.

Happy weekend dear readers and happy St Patrick's Day to all the Irish people here and around the world! I did something a little crazy on a whim this week (and probably because of Aerlingus constantly sending me emails about fantastic flights deals...) and booked a ticket for myself to go somewhere really warm next month and also where some of my favourite people live. This is very exciting!
As usual, here are a few interesting things for you to enjoy this Saturday:

- Something interesting: with our process of decluttering the house, I found this article with top tips that might help.

- Something delicious: Mardi's blog post about café gourmand has me all excited about baking mini desserts this weekend.

- Some other delicious thing: I shared a recipe for profiteroles this week and even created my own GIF for the occasion!

- A book: I am currently reading The Stonecutter by Camilla Läckerg and it is a really captivating read.

- A song: the rainy weather this week had me wanting to curl up on the couch with a book, some lemon green tea with Laura Marling on repeat.

- A film: I watched this classic 80's movie which reminded me that the only time I went to detention in secondary school, it was nothing as entertaining as this.

Two years ago, I had a little series of choux pastry recipes going (first with gruyere and rosemary gougères then delicious and sweet chouquettes) and all that was missing since then is my beloved recipe for profiteroles with dark chocolate sauce. So let's wait no more!

How have you been this week? I was so glad to finally go outside and get some fresh air after being stuck at home quite a bit during the snow storm last week. The snow is mostly all melted now (there are still some piles left here and there where we live) and we have had some lovely sunny days with blue sky during the week. Plans are busy for the weekend as we are going to help a family member with painting (nothing artistic, just plain walls...). I am hoping to find some time to cook, read and relax as well. Here are some links for you to enjoy this Saturday:

- Something interesting: how a trip to Italy inspired a family to tackle food waste at home.

- Something delicious: I really want to try those farmhouse party quesadillas at the weekend.

- Some other delicious thing: I spotted this recipe for Gin Punch and I look forward to the warmer months when it will be blueberry season again.

- A book: I heard the graphic novel Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked The World by Pénélope Bagieu is finally out in English and I cannot wait to gift it to a lot of lovely ladies this year (I read both volumes in French and it's wonderful seeing it translated).

- A song: Remember Me from Pixar's Coco won an Oscar! The movie itself is really quite wonderful.

- A TV series: I watched French tv series La Mante during the snow storm and really enjoyed it.

 Decluttering. This is probably not a word we want to read or hear about too often, associated with the idea of getting rid of things we own and accumulate. I know this is not a pleasant task for a lot of us but after getting the hang of it, I really got to appreciate its benefits. We recently managed to get around the idea of decluttering via different ways that helped us so I thought I would share about it here.

In order to help us with the task of decluttering, we took tips from Marie Kondo's famous book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, various articles online and documentary Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. We did not apply all those ideas at 100% since some seem a little extreme for our lifestyle. But we did adapt to some of those ideas and it definitely helped making a big change in the way we consume and the type of things we accumulate (aka clutter).
Decluttering was a really good step for us as we rent a fully furnished small 2-bedroom apartment and it feels like the moment you bring in something new, it fills up the space really fast (if it were up to us, we would definitely go for furniture with clever storage spaces). We applied different ways of decluttering with our limited space in mind but I feel it could be useful even if we move to a bigger place in the future (the near one hopefully!) as it definitely gave us a more mindful approach to what we buy as well.

I am not making a statement here that everybody should absolutely declutter and I also want to reassure you that we are not minimalists (far from it). It is really up to you but I know this might help people who are interested in finding ways to declutter their homes when it comes to it.

Here is how we decluttered most of our home (it is not really something we were willing to do in one day/one sweep and it is still a work in progress).