Los! Floating lamps...

The announcement on LOS!

In January I wrote about the very remarkable Levatating lamps designed by Angela Jansen. She used the technology from Crealev for a lamp called LOS! On Los! Concepts it is announced that something will happen in July. One can only hope they will go on sale!

Wallpapered Magazine Holders

Having slight 'Magazine-holic' issues I always feel I need to find good storage for them. So with the new office almost finished I was on the look out. Bless Martha and her fantastic idea's. In July's Living I spotted the tutorial for Wallpapered Magazine Holders.


My new fab Mag Holders

So of to B&Q I went to buy my selected wallpaper. But when I got there you could tear a bit off for free to take home (and test against your wall I imagine). So that saved my almost £20. I took my scrap home and bought four KNUFF Ikea Magazine Holders at £2.99 each. After some crafing the result is quite stunning! If you want to do the same this is how you go about it:



Wallpapered Magazine Holders




You will need:
4 Magazine Holders from Ikea.
Wallpaper scrap
craft glue
pencil

First choose which part of the design will look best. I placed the wallpaper right side up on the table and used one of the magazine holders to roughly see what part would work best. If your scrap of wallpaper is quite large mark where the top and bottom of the magazine holders will be, taking an extra margin about about 2.5 cm (1 inch) and cut.

Turn the wallpaper right side down and trace around the Magazine Holder with a pencil four times. Match each side line up, so that they fall on top of eachother. Cut exactly on the lines.



Pick which end you want to start with and lay the wallpaper out in the right order. It's not a big deal if you mix them up as you can simply switch the Magazine Holders around at the end to reastablish the right sequence.



Take one of the strips and dot some glue on the back. Spread it around with a brush or scrap of paper making sure it's evenly spread out.



Position the wallpaper RIGHT SIDE UP on the back of the Magazine Holder. It's an easy mistake to place them upside down, so pay attention.



Make sure the wallpaper is alligned with the sides and no wood is showing. If you do see wood, lift it back up and shift it around a bit until it's in place properly.



Once it is in place, press down and smooth out from the center to the edges to avoid any air bubbles showing. Repeat the whole process for each folder.



All finished!!


It took me less than half an hour so it's a quick and easy project that brightens up a livingroom, bookcase or office in a cheap and fast way.

Protect and Perfect, review 2

In October 2007 I too became a victim of the No7 Protect & Perfect Serum hype. As you can read in my second blog post on the subject, Protect and Perfect, review 1, it did do a good job, an extremely good job considering the reactions. Now I've been using the whole line and I thought an update is in order. If you don't know what all the fuss is about read the other two post first (post 1, post 2)



The Serum
I'd like to start with the star product: The Serum. I give this product an 8.5 out of 10. As we all know it really works (as science has proven). It is a very nice product to use. When you apply it on your skin it makes it soooo smooth. I feel the difference straight away. I do wish it would work all day until crashing into bed at night, but this is not the case. If you have a dinner or go out for the night you might want to use it again. For this reason I substracted half a point. The only issue I have with this product is... sadly enough with the packaging. I've have bought the product three times now and it was packaged differently each time. First I got a tube with a flat top. This was great because by standing it on it's head the product was always ready to use. The second version had a pointy screw top and thus as I used more it was exactly like waiting for the ketchup to decide to come out of the bottle. They tried to sell me this second version again, but thank god they had a glass bottle with a pump. Quite posh the glass and it did work find, but I like the precise controle you get with the tube. You can decide exactly how much to squeeze out. So the first packaging was the best. For all this I substract another whole point. Sooooo if Boots go back to the first packaging they gain a whole point bringing the total score to 9.5... Boots get going!!



Day Cream
A very good overal product. I give this a 8 out of 10, but with a note that it's extremely good value. As far as day creams go this is a good deal. For less than 20 pounds you get quite a good day cream. Yes premium brands are 'only' about 10 pound more expensive, but this No7 P&P cream seems to last and last and last. I can't believe I'm still using a pot I bought months ago. The cream has a good thickness to it and you only need a little to cover face, neck and décolleté. It tends to lay on my skin (combo normal/greasy with sensitve area's too) for a while after applying it. This is not a problem for me as I apply my make-up later. But not convinent. So 1 minus point for this. The when it sinks into the skin it is very good however. The last point to be substacted is (again) because of the packaging. The glass jar is very nice, but the shape is all wrong. Pleasant for the eye, but annoying to use. I believe usablitly should come before looks if you use it every single day.



Night cream
Also a good overal product with a score of 9 out of 10. Almost the same points as the day cream. Only difference is that the night cream doesn't get a point substacted for laying on the skin a little longer. This is because this is a good thing for night creams. They need to be a little rich and be taken up slow. This so the skin can relax and recover from the day. The skins own abillity to recover is phenomonal and a good night cream will help it a great deal. The design of the jar is the only bad point, but if that gets sorted it get 10 of 10, not bad for a night cream costing less than 20 pounds.



Eye cream
Nice, but not spectacular: 7 out of 10. I think I have issues with eye creams... they never really deliver. I tried all sorts. So I can honestly say that this No7 P&P eyecream is half decent. The price, just over 15 pounds, ain't bad. The feel of the cream is good: light and airy. It gets half a point taken off because I like it go sink into the skin a little quicker. And it also gets half a point taken away because of the horrible colour. It's a murky beige. I have no idea why but twice a day I think it weird. That leaves another 2 points that have been taken away and it is AGAIN because of the packaging. And it's 2 points this time because.. well quite frankly the designer of this package should be shot (figuratively speaking ofcourse). They should not be working EVER in design again. Does it suck that much you wonder?!! YES it does. It's the same shape as the big jars, but because it's not big you can't get your finger in properly. So from the very start it's hard to reach the cream. I got fed up with this very quickly so now I use a little flat plastic nutella spread stick. It's one of those plastic sticks you use as a spoon with the individual packs of Nutella you can take away on picnicks etc. Now I ask you how silly is it that I need to use a Nutella stick to get to my eye cream??? Exactly -2 and be glad I didn't take away more points.

Conclusion
Overal I'm very happy with the products. It's very good value for money as the quality is pretty high. The thing that really lets the line down is it's packaging, which looks fine, but annoys every time you use a product. Because it's used twice a day this counts for quite a bit of agravation. Once they sort this out it is as close as you can get to a-brands like Clinique and Lancôme.

Links:
First Protect & Perfect Post
Protect and Perfect, review 1
Boots: No7 Protect & Perfect

Cleaning a Le Pliage bag

A few years ago I bought a new sort of white canvas bag from my local bag shop. It was a Longchamps, a real one and at an affordable price. Grant you it wasn't all leather but it was cute and above all practical. Ofcourse we now are all familiar with the Les Pliages bags from Longchamps. You can even have design your own Pliage, but back then it was a very new and lovely surprise.


Stylish and handy... Les Pliages!

Through the years I've not used the bag a lot. I mostly took it out and about during the summer time, but about 2 years ago it got a bit dirty. A white bag that is not white no more is not a good thing. I tried cleaning it but failed... until last week!


The big bother of my Le Pliage

My colleague has two Les Pliages she uses regurarly and I always felt a pang for my perfectly fine, yet smudged little tote. It was in the attic waiting to be loved once more. So I searched around on the internet and found a very old forum post that mentioned Woolite. I tired it and it worked a charm. My Le Pliage is so white it almost hurts to look at it now. It is happily coming out and about with me and we all lived happily ever after.

Here is how you clean your nylon / canvas tote:

Place your bag in the sink and slowly fill it with handwarm water. Add a good dash of Woolite. Don't let the water come too high. I left it about 2 cm underneath the handle base. This is leather so either protect it or like me fold the top of the bag over the side, letting the handles hang. If you want you can place an object on the handles to stop your bag from flipping back.
Leave for 5 minutes.
Drain the water from the sink and lift your bag. Some water might have entered it. You can leave it in the empty sink to empty itself or if your impatient like me, tip it out. Do this carefully so you get as little water on the leather as possible.
Lay it flat on a clean tea towel and dry your bag with another tea towel. Now if the area around the handles need cleaning get a sheet or two of kitchen roll. Use pure woolite and rub it carefully over the area. Use new wet towels of kitchen roll to clean the soap off and dry this area too. Repeat for other side.
Et Voilà!

Happy Living Tip 3: One Sip Awareness

Are you busy? I sure am. Do the days rush past, giving you hardly any time to actually realise what is happening? No worries you are not alone. Many of us are in the same boat and to be honest it’s not new either. So it’s not surpising that there is a well known trick to make you less stressed and more at peace with yourself and your busy day. This trick doesn’t take any extra time after you practise it a few times. It’s really simple. By focusing on something small, in this case taking a sip of water from a glass, you bring awareness to what you are actually doing right that moment. By doing this your body calms down and you become less stressed. It also works on your mind. By focusing completely on this one action there is no room for anything else. So for one sip you mind is quite. And you have the choice of doing it as often as you like. One sip or ten. Whatever you feel you need.


Get a glass of water

One Sip Awareness

All you need is a glass of water (or another non-alcoholic drink)

Be ready to grab your glass and take a sip, here we go:
Reach for the glass and look at your hand reaching for the glass
See your fingers wrapping around the glass
How does it feels to your touch?
Pick up the glass
What is the weight like and can you feel your muscles respond?
Bring the glass towards your lips
Is there a shift in sensation in your mouth as you are about to drink?
Does it feel dry or is there more salavating now that you know you are about to take a sip?
Place the glass on your lips and sip
How does the drink feel? Warm, cold, cool, smooth, textured?
Taste the liquid in you mouth and be aware of the sensations
Swallow and feel the throat constrict
Can you feel it go down?
Return the attention back to your mouth
Is it the same?
Are you still thristy?
Do you want to drink more?
If so how do you know? How does your body tell you?

Finish your drink in peace. Bring awareness to however many sips you feel comfortable with. Even if that means only once every drink or even twice a day. There is no wrong or right.

The idea of drink awareness is well known to help become more in tune with youself and your surroundings. Oprah has an audio version of this excersise on her website connected to her 'A New Earth' Class. It's free and very helpfull! Please make sure to check it out.

Halo

I love Dutch Design. It's so hip and happening. A while back I spotted this great blog called Minirobot. It has all sorts of great, crazy items. Like the very funny and thankfully only visualy offending (your nose is safe) 'fart pants'. Yes! I know and I'm not joking either...


Odor free!! (thankfully)

But what I really liked was a lamp made by a Dutch designer named Wieland Vogel. I wrote him to ask the price, but he wouldn't say. The lamp is called Halo (Aureool in Dutch) and it's a fantastic concept. When you hang it in a room you can concentrate the light by leaving it small (great for dining) or pull it out which makes the light spread wide (great for lounging/parties). If you are interested you might like to inquire, although I'm not sure you would get an answers. I believe they might plan actual production or something of the lamp, however so far (and I've waited a few months for this post) I've not seen any evidence. However it's great for inspiration! I wouldn't mind a less industrial (more elegant) looking lamp that works in a similar manner.



Images from Minirobot

Dalai Lama: change the world... start small

Besides work, maintaining the vegetable plot, redecorating the house and still playing lots of World of Warcraft, I’ve been busy switching my diet. This new healthy diet requires more cooking, planning and preperation. More on that in a later post.


This cute Bee Happy image I found on Lollygaggin, a great artistic blog!

In short I've been a very busy bee, who’s been out and about a lot too. First I went to see the Dalai Lama in the Royal Albert Hall on the 22nd of May. I have never been to the Royal Albert Hall before, nor have I ever seen the Dalai Lama before. And it was quite an experience.

My colleague and dear Friend Louisa and I left work at lunch time and travelled to the Royal Albert Hall (RAH). The last part of our journey we took one of those old London Busses called Routemaster. These are still used on Route 9. We passed all sorts of demonstrations near the RAH. Chinese students (possibly hired by their government) protesting against the Dalai Lama. Some sort of Buddhist sect, Shugden Buddhists... protesting against the Dalai Lama. It was all a bit loud and chaotic. And angry too. Quite negative which says something about the protesters in my opinion. What sounds better: Dalai Lama stop Lying... or ...Dalai Lama tell the Truth. I would think the latter as it's a wish for good. Maybe they never heard of the Law of Attraction. This latter group seemed very religiously fanatic, something which I never understand. In the end religion is your own business but when it brings up hate and violence (intent) that to me is just the ugly side of humans and there is nothing religious or sprititual about that.


Bright lights are blinding...

After all that turmoil it was great to take our seats in this vast dome and watch the peace and cheerfullness of the Dalai Lama. He held a very good speach, sometimes hard to understand (because of his accent and bad sound). But this is what I took away from it:

You can not change big things if you don't change small things first. Change starts with yourself and it is your responsibility. We are all in the same boat together. Life brings ups and downs. We are all connected and all you need to do is recognise yourself in the other person.

In order to find happiness you must realise that everything is transient. Simply put: everything will pass away or change. That is what life is: change. We have a choice when it comes to dealing with change. We can either accept it or not accept it. If we choose the first option we take life as it comes, look at this moment and see the facts, our mind state and our feelings that are before us and move on from there. If we resist we do not accept the situation, mind state and our feelings and we go against what is (reality). This brings suffering.

So to end the suffering in the world do what you can to eliminate it in you. Because if you can not take away your own suffering, what makes you think you have any chance in making the world a better place. And the best thing is, anyone can do it. You don't have to be the president of a country or someone in a position of power. Start with you! Eliminate any unnessesary suffering from yourself and become happier. You will also become more an more able to help those you love and strangers who as was said in the beginning are in the same boat as you and I. By these small actions you really do help the world.

Namaste'