May
13

sisterMAG N°7 – A lemony yellow cover dress

You have now spent the first weekend with our new issue and we are very excited to hear and see what you think of it, what features you liked best and what recipes you want to try! We first took a little weekend break, drank lemonade, put Italian sunglasses on and ate pasta ;). Now we are starting the new week full of energy and first want to let you look behind the scenes of our cover shooting.

The Theme and our cover dress
After the theme “Do you know the land where lemon trees bloom” was clear, Evi had the idea of the lemon dress. First of all: it is of course an exaggeration. Paola was even wearing hip pads under her skirt to make this over-the-top wonderful Sophia-Loren-silhouette. A little bit we got inspired by the Chanel Resort 2013 Collection (look 17 or 18 for example).

The production of the dress was a time-consuming affair, actually the hardest design yet! The lemons we sawed by hand on a scroll saw, the edges were sanded, then a hole was drilled and finally sewn onto the dress. The skirt is incredibly heavy and definitely not for everyday use :). As sisterMAG readers probably know: With our cover dresses we intentionally go a different path than usual women’s or fashion magazines. We don’t want to show the latest trend, the newest collection or the most beautiful pore-free face but rather show the ideas, colours and topics of the issue. We want to create dresses made out of interesting materials you would never see in real life.

Shooting day

We were particularly pleased to be working with a talented and really great stylist from Berlin. Hair and makeup was done by Lena Schleweis, and we hope that we can do many more projects together in the future. Definitely take the time to look at her site lenaschleweis.com .

The shoot took place at the Botanical Garden in Berlin Dahlem. Ashley and I had looked around the whole area before (you can read her blogpost full of wonderful pictures of their cacti here ). That was really good because on the actual shooting day, we only had 1 hour to photograph three different locations. So I became the slave driver, shooing my two photographers Ashley and Cris (who made the video) and model Paola through the jungle.

Paola I know for quite a while, because she had been a loyal Neu4bauer-reader for a long time. Eventually we met for coffee at the airport in Bari, when I was there on vacation and we have kept in touch ever since. Hence she did not only take Cris and me on a tour through her city (Bari – see the whole feature on pages xx following in sisterMAG N°7), but also came to Berlin this April and modeled for our cover. We are very excited and a little proud to show our true-Italian friend on the cover of our Italy Edition ;). By the way: Paola has her own blog where she shows her vintage finds and what she sells on her Etsy shop etc. Click through to “Paola’s Vintage”

The images that didn’t make it
Always hard to choose only TWO images from more than 500! See some of my favourite shots, which just didn’t make the cut to be the cover ;). Click through to our Pinterest Cover Board to save the image for yourself or use in a blogpost (click on any image):

And now there is only one last thing to show: the Behind-the-scenes video, which Cris shot from our day of shooting day and which came out really really wonderfully! Definitely have a look and see how Ashley and I work together!

Cover photos: Ashley Ludäscher Photography
Video: Cristopher Santos
Hair & Makeup: Lena Schleweis
Model: Paola Pierno

Apr
26

The year of books in sisterMAG

If you wouldn’t label yourself a collector of any kind (stamps, little figurines, sand from the beaches you have visited, beer mats or anything of the like) we can assure you that there is some corner in your flat dedicated to your secret passion for collecting.
This corner may have different appearances. Maybe you pile your collection, but you might just as well have chosen the window sill as a perfect place or the ‘classic’ way of arranging it neatly on a shelf. Some pieces of your collection may be scattered in your flat and occupy quite prominent places such as the drawer beside your bed or the side table in your living room.

Even though all the pieces of your collection have something in common, they all have a different content – and by chance might even contain some grains of sand from a beach you have visited, a stamp or even a beer mat. That’s because books are something which is often connected to memories. Something we collect quite unconsciously but which we like to look at again after some time. Especially in times of new technologies which are constantly changing and keep coming into our lives before leaving us again, books are something that stays in our lives from the very first time a book has been read to us as children. We develop a preference for certain kinds of books: novels, cook books, love stories, or special interest books, … this list could go on and on, and on.

This variety of stories in combination with the experiences and memories connected with it made us decide to put the year 2013 under the guiding theme “Year of Books”.
In this year’s issues you will not only find articles on reading books, writing books and making books (digital or print) but we have also dedicated each issue to a certain book which by its title sets the topic and the tone of each issue.
And there is of course you and your very own collection of books. We would like to invite you to share your best picks, your page turners and constant companions.
Follow sisterMAG on Facebook and/ or Twitter (#yearofbooks13), post your favourite book titles, explore the favourite books of others and if you are lucky you and your recommendation might end up in one of our upcoming issues!
Have a look at our Facebook-account where we have started to collect some quotes and book titles already. Share a quote from the book you are reading below this article or on Facebook and join the sharing

Apr
22

A Year in Blogging Conferences

Dear sisterMAG readers,

May is coming up quickly and therefore many exciting events for the sisterMAG team. A highlight is definitely the Blogging Conference The Hive, 25th/26th May in Berlin.

Therefore it is time to look back on the past year, in which we were able to visit a number of blogging conferences throughout Europe.

Exactly one year ago we not only took part in our first blogging conference with The Hive, but we were even allowed to hold our first presentation (post about presentation). We met so many great people, many of them are now among our closest friends.

In July 2012 with our trip to Tel Aviv a dream came true. We had wanted to visit this city for so long, which is repeatedly described as the young heart of Israel. At the invitation of Saloona, Israel’s largest website for women, we spent three unforgettable days in the city, held in front of hundreds of enthusiastic bloggers a presentation about “The Blog as CV”, got an amazing insight of Tel Aviv with the help of the Kinetis team and swore that we will come back for a longer trip soon.

Right at the beginning of the dark, cold season in November 2012, the Blogging Conference “Blogst” (http://konferenz.blogst.de/) organized by Ricarda and Clara took place in Hamburg. It was just unbelievable to finally meet many of our German blogging friends with whom we had often talked in emails and comments or on Twitter and Facebook. It was like a big reunion! We were asked to give the opening speech and introduced the topic with a presentation about “Lifestyle Blogs – Virtual trivialities or media potential?”. The research for it was very interesting, because of course this is a topic that we have to deal with frequently when working on sisterMAG. In particular, the discussion with Clara (http://www.tastesheriff.com/), Ricarda (http://23qmstil.blogspot.de/), Daniela (http://klitzeklein.wordpress.com/) and Angelika (http://ichweisswo.blogspot.com/) brought up some interesting statements how bloggers themselves see the topic. Our conclusion: Bloggers must definitely not hide themselves and the work of bloggers has a lot of potential.

The next trip we took was to Stockholm at the beginning of February 2013 for Meet the Blogger Stockholm. After we had participated in the event in Amsterdam in June 2012 as a visitor, we were looking forward even more to speaking in Stockholm. We like the concept of Meet the Bloggers very well: 1 day lectures, 1 day design tour – combined with design bloggers from all over Europe, a great location and wonderful food. Our presentation was all about the creative process behind sisterMAG. We explained a little about how we developed the “product sisterMAG”, how to get from a rough concept to the individual articles and how one of our cover garments is created and photographed.

Lots of love,
Toni

Apr
12

Profile:: Ashley Ludäscher

During the last two years I have learned a lot about the digital world, Blogging, photography and publishing. One of the most important lessons: you sleep way better if you can depend on your coworkers and colleagues! One example is Ashley: whenever I have a shooting with her, I just know that I will love the end product!

The Californian girl has been living in Germany for quite a while now. Over a year ago (correct me if I’m wrong ;) she moved to Berlin. Our first “meet-cute” was more or less a blind date orchestrated by Toni. It had been my sister who had found Ashley’s blog “Chasing Heartbeats” three years earlier and had developped a little blogger crush for the dark-haired lifestyle blogger. On a sunny March morning the two of us met up in the Berlin Mitte coffeeshop Oliv to discuss a possible collaboration for sisterMAG in the future. I talked and told her so much during our meeting – she must have thought I am a total nutcase ;). However it was the beginning of a true friendship.

Since then Ashley, who has been a photographer for over seven years and is a wedding photographer in “normal life” (more infos about her wedding photography on her wedding blog) and studied photography at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, and I have had several adventures together: Shootings in Copenhagen with Brittany, in Freiberg with my mother – who half-adopted her as our third sister ;), cover shoots in my empty flat in Leipzig or on wanky wooden boards in the workshop of my home OR – that was only last week – in the Botanical Garden for our upcoming issue.

You should definitely subscribe to her blog, because her pictures show Berlin as the city I know and love, which is NOT all about graffiti and run-down corners: the Hansa district in sunlight, Tempelhof in fall and on her pictures even the Stasi Museum looks inviting. After all, it took Ashley to convince me to sit on a scooter and smile dully in her video camera in the Everplaces image film. It might have been the revenge for the Souvenir Shooting when we photographed Ashley in summery dresses in Berlin and forced her to do graceful jumps in high heels which were two numbers too small. I am really sorry for that – but I still love the pictures ;).

Be on the lookout for this credit in sisterMAG or any other publication in the world: Photography – Ashley Ludäscher!

Text: Thea Neubauer | Profile: Donata Proske

What is your name and blog‘s or business‘ name?

Hi, I’m Ashley! I am a wedding, travel and lifestyle photographer originally from California, now based in Berlin. I have two blogs: my lifestyle blog, Chasing Heartbeats: www.chasingheartbeats.com and my weddings blog: www.ashleyludaescher.com

What is your blog about? Is that your profession or a hobby?

I originally started blogging to keep my family and friends back home in California updated on my life in Germany and never expected anything to come of it, or become a real “blogger”. It has turned into a place I share my work, travels and inspiration and I feel so lucky to be a part of this amazing blogging community.

What was your favourite book (or magazine) as a child?

The boxcar children was a book I loved when I was really young, and I also loved the Ramona series from Beverly Cleary.

What is your favourite magazine today?

American Vogue. I have been a subscriber since I was in my teens and still have almost every issue. :)

What is your home page when opening the browser?

not very exciting… but google. The pages I open up first are facebook, twitter and my blogs.

What is your favourite Social Media Platform (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, …)?

all of the above? I love them all in different ways, it would be like choosing your favorite child. ;)

One thing you love and one thing you hate!

I love my family and I detest intolerant people.

What have you contributed to sisterMAG?

I have been so lucky to contribute several fashion stories to sisterMAG and the covers for issues 4, 5 & the upcoming 7th issue.

What is your suggestion for our magazine (category, feature, technology, …)?

I really loved your city stories on DIY London and Vintage Istanbul and would love to see more of those features!

All shootings from Ashley in sisterMAG:

“1 Pattern – 5 skirts” in sisterMAG N°3
Cover of sisterMAG N°4
“Wide fields” – Coat Shooting in sisterMAG N°4
Cover of sisterMAG N°5
“Blouses” – Blouse shooting with Brittany in sisterMAG N°5
Berlin Lover’s Guide in sisterMAG N°5
“Knitting Party” in sisterMAG N°6
Cover of sisterMAG N°7 – cannot wait to show you this!

Apr
04

Post from my Kitchen – Part II

After Toni described what we got in our package the other day, it is my (Thea’s) part to tell you a little bit about our childhood memories and the content of our boxes. When Toni heard the theme of this swap, she instantly turned to me and said: “We must do a cellar cake”. A cellar cake (in older times also named Lukullus after the great Latin gourmet and commander Lucullus) is a chocolate cake made of cacao, coconut fat and layers of shortbread cookies.

However, something that has shaped our whole life is a saying my mom used to tell us all the time: “Everything must change in order to stay good”. Living after this aphorism, our childhood was never full of traditions and the same meals, food or even Christmas Trees but rather experiments and new stuff. That’s why we decided to spice up the good old Lukullus and try it in different versions. In the end we made four different versions of the chocolaty treat:

A White cellar cake with cranberries and whole wheat cookies
A more traditional Lukullus in mini square format with a hint of amaretto
Squared mini cellar cakes with a surprise of red jam inside
Finally Mini Cellar Cakes in muffin shape with meringues and pieces of whole wheat cookies

Then (very much like in our childhood) Toni ceded me to do the packaging :). I’ve always been a buff for paper, boxes and everything around Packaging. Thus I rummaged through my “Structural Design” books (by Rabbit Press) and made up these square and rectangular boxes made out of sturdy cardboard paper in Yellow, Blue and White. Each recipe got another audiobook series, which we really loved in the past. Toni and I both collected ridiculous amounts of tapes –never CDs and we also do not believe in CDs for children today, because there is this certain atmosphere about cassettes! CDs take away the joy of arguing about who is responsible for pulling the magnetic band ;). Toni used to make homemade cassette covers for the ones we had copied *ehem* (back in the days we were not as indulged in copyright laws as we are now ;) and I knew my “Bibi Blocksbergs” so well, that they would stop the cassette after 5 seconds and I had to guess which episode it was.

Just on the morning of sending the package, I baked MY childhood memory cake: the simple sugar yeast cake made by mom and cut into little rectangles. Simply heaven, especially when still warm!

You will find our recipes later this week on the Foodboard, which our lovely organizers of “Post from my kitchen” have created.
We hope you like what we came up with. We definitely love all the ideas we saw around the web! Thanks so much, Silke, for being an awesome swap partner!

Yours, Toni & Thea