Someone asked me about European home magazines, so I decided to write a post featuring some of the magazines I read. I don't make any money on advertising, I just really happen to like them. Unfortunately, nearly all of these magazines are not available in my country, so when I go on vacation to Germany I always buy a whole bunch of them.
Germany has a great choice of all sorts of ladies' magazines, about cooking, gardening, interior decoration, crafts and such like. I think Burda is famous all over the world. I'm not that good at sewing, but I always buy the knitting magazine from Burda called Verena which is also available in Dutch:
I like the patterns they feature and they also have some interesting articles about new yarns and trends. It's practically the only knitting magazine which I buy.
Rezepte Pur is a cooking magazine in German which has no articles of any sorts, only the recipes:
In contrast to similar Dutch magazines it only costs 99 cents and you get a lot for your money. They also publish menues for the whole month and have the suggestions for quick meals for busy people (like me!:)
Then you have Lisa, which publishes several magazines for women on various topics. I'm not sure whether they are all wholesome, but I always buy two of them, Lisa Wohnen, about interior decoration; and Lisa Blumen und Pflanzen, about gardening:
Lisa Wohnen has Do-It-Yourself projects and sometimes even features housewives, like the issue above. German interior magazines also often show normal, average people instead of wealthy double income couples who buy houses for more than one million euros and then pay one more million to renovate them according to modern standards. Lisa Blumen Und Pflanzen, for instance, also has suggestions for people who have a small balcony instead of a garden:
Lisa Wohnen offers entertainment tips and, of course, recipes. Besides Lisa, there is also Laura Wohnen, a great magazine which is basically a different version of Lisa, it also has DIY projects, articles on different decoratiing styles, home makeovers, recipes etc etc. It's more about home than about garden though, and by some reason I prefer it to Lisa Wohnen, probably because it's more shabby chic.
The last magazine I'd like to talk about today is Wohnen Und Garten, which is all about cottages, cottage gardens and things like that. The photography is simply gorgeous. The June 2013 issue had an article about Jane Austen:
and some delicious summer recipes:
Well, that about sums it up! I hope it was helpful.
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i will try to order that last magazine online!!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if it's possible, but you cant try! It's in German, though.
DeleteThis is so interesting! I really do like (and prefer) foreign magazines. There is not a single Finnish ladies' magazine I'd buy, they all are dull and uninteresting and written from non-traditional point of view. And they are expensive too!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen those others, but W&G is one of my favorites, I used to buy it. There were also seasonal magazines called Wohnen Träume and Garten Träume, which came from the same print house I guess. Nowadays I enjoy the website http://www.wohnen-und-garten.de/
A blogpost about my favorite magazines can be read here http://miriaminmaailma.blogspot.fi/2013/01/talvilukemista.html
You have W&G in Finnish??? Lucky you! I have every time to go to Germany to buy it:) What I like about German magazines, at least those I buy, is that they always have a huge accent on enjoying life. They write things like "create an oasis of rest in your garden where you can sit with your book and your knitting and your cat and relax while the kids are playing outside", that's something that modern women are not supposed to do as they rush from work to school to pick their kids and then rush home to clean and make dinner before the husband comes home from work. One is made to feel like a criminal for simply sitting outside with a book for half an hour!
DeleteWell, to be honest, at least we_had_it here, I don't know what's the situation now, I haven't been in hypermarkets for a long time.
DeleteI know what you mean! We do have 'enjoying life' stuff in Finnish magazines, but in a different way... it's like "you need a 5 minutes mini-vacation a day to maintain your sanity" or "don't forget to enjoy! Remember to schedule for your relaxation" What could be more stressful?
Some things are said better in another language than your own... The words "Süsse Perlen" are mouth-watering! :-)
No, no, no... I did not read right... We don't have W&G in FINNISH, no! :-) We have (had) it in FINLAND :-D
DeleteHere it's not sold at all. I always share it and other magazines with a friend who is seriously into interior decoration, this prevents my ending up with a pile of old magazines:) She is more into Scandinavian style though (all white and natural), but I prefer flowers and colours.
DeleteThank you! Very nice magazines. I like the one that is all recipes and no articles and the cottage magazine. I have seen the Verenda magazine, they have a US version which is nice. I also like Rebecca Magazine (another knitting magazine). No articles just knitting patterns which I like. How about crochet magazines? There use to be a couple of magazines out of France called Decorative Crochet and Magic Crochet that are no longer in print. The patterns were gorgeous thread crochet pieces! Do you have nice crochet magazines in your area? I Looked for some Japanese crochet magazines but the cost of subscription is nearly $100 because of shipping, so looking for an alternative.
ReplyDeleteThanks again.
You are welcome! We have some nice crochet magazines, too; but I usually don't buy them since I'm not that much into it. Then there is Anna, a German magazine in Dutch which has both knitting and crochet patterns, and then also embroidery and quilting patterns. I used to buy it, but it's mostly home decoration stuff, so I prefer Verena.
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