Mags this month

Everyone has their weaknesses. Some can't say no to cheese, others find gadgets irresistible. As some of you might know, my Achilles heel is magazines (amongst other things like desserts, books and earrings). This month the I managed quite a selection already.




Ofcourse I couldn't leave the second edition of Jamie behind on the shelves. It's packed with recipes and food related stories, but then what do you expect from Jamie Oliver. It is quite a blokey magazine, with robust recipes and chunky styling. As an import Brit (I'm Dutch/Italian) the recipe I really want to make is: Kick-arse chicken & leek pie. In short a great mag to buy your boyfriend if he's into cooking. BTW I still think that his best series EVER was Jamie at Home. It's just the honesty of food, growing your own veg, cooking with spirit.

I got Easy Living Magazine, mainly because of the gorgeous free Graham and Green bag. It's not big, but it's so pretty.The mag is quick cool actually, it's not as silly as most woman magazines where fashion and sex tips are the be all and end all. I'm glad there are some magazines for woman that have a bit more to them. It's not in depth but it's a good all rounder: home decor, food, health, beauty, etc. I liked the 'Look great in Jeans' idea's page (especially the bright yellow cardy with belt on a dark blue bootcut). The article about mums waiting and waiting for their grown up busy bee daughters to include them in their lives. It was send in by a reader and I think it was well cool of Easy Living to print it.



As a knitter I'm always on the outlook for knitting magazines. I have quite a few now and more patterns I want to make than time to make them. Still the second edition of Debbie Bliss magazine was a no brainer after such lovely yarniness in the first. Again there are plenty of patterns I would love to make, a beautiful orange pleated top is high on the list. White chunky pillows are also very lovely. I got it from Yarnbox where they also have a Zakka crochet book called Kyuuto! translated into English, which I also promptly bought.

Next I got Web Designer a mag that is full with tutorials. I've not been writing on my blog of late as I'm busy building a website for a company. It's a lot of work, cool work, but a lot of it. They want their news section working on WordPress which is the main theme of this months Web Designer. Pretty cool stuff. Who knows, I might switch :O



Then, yes we are not finished yet, I couldn't resist my first ever purchase of Food and Travel. This I flipped through in a supermarket check out line and didn't buy straight away, but I was well impressed and was incapable of not buying it later. Oh I'm so weak. Anyway it has great recipes and reports. Top notch: Lebanese cuisine, use of new herbs (well new to me, example: hot grilled avocado with brown shrimp and chervil butter), a great report of Parma (the place from the ham) and food foraging.

And last, but not least my monthly staple: Martha Stewart's Living. I can only get it at a few places here in the UK, nearby shopping centre Bluewater being the closest. This mag always delivers: recipies, gardening, tips, tricks, flowers, crafts... all the things I like. Martha is still the godess of homemaking. This month there is an article about a wine tasting evening, something I would love to try with a few friends. Great idea!

I'm well happy buying magazines. It's my little treat. Others buy their double mokka chokka bladibla from Starbucks... I buy mags. So many topics and idea's it's like a creative bomb in a few pages. Feel free to comment and let us know your favourite mags.

iKnit day

On Saturday September 6th I went to my first ever iKnit day in London. It was great. Unfortunately I went alone as my knitting buddy Louisa moved back to Australia (Gosh I miss you girl!!). After arriving on time I joined an enormous queue at the Royal Horticultural Halls. It was snakeing around the building. It seems that most knitters will not be late when a day off knitting goodness is on the menu. All where exactly on time, which can't be said of the doors opening. We only had to wait about 10 minutes which was fine as it didn't really rain much.


So much to see and do

After entering the building I went to listen to Jane Sowerby who had a presentation called "Victorian Knitters vs Today’s Knitters". It seemed very interesting, but I couldn't hear a word. After about 20 minutes I could not guess by her lips what she was talking about anymore and I left. They really should have given her a mic. Such a shame as it seemed very interesting and I'm working on my first lace shawl. I then walked around the market a bit and payed for the first edition of a new sewing magazine to be send home later this month. After inspecting the market (which was extremely busy) I sat down on the stairs and enjoyed my duck wrap I had bought earlier at M&S (yum!). Then I knitted a bit on the shawl and watched a very good fashion show. It was old fashion knits (from the early war era). I took several pics with my mobile but for really good quality shots go to the Iknit Flickr page! I think I fell in love with at least half a dozen of the models (not the girls, the patterns!!)


a fantastic knitty day!

After the fashion show I spotted this girl spinning. She was part of a booth that sold handspun and fibre. I fell for one of the beautifull fibres and although I had promised myself not to get involved in spinning (don't need another hobby) I couldn't help it I was hooked. The girl was Moonspinning and the fibre was made by her booth partner Rockpool Candy (Inga). Both their fibre was for sale but the one I choose was made by Inga. Anyway Moonspinning was showing this girl how to spin and I was hooked. She didn't sell any spindles so off I went to look for one. In the end I bought a very beautifull spindle at the iKnit booth. They had quite a number and all where made out of different types of wood. I felt a bit like Harry Potter choosing his wand. The spindles where all much lighter than the one Moonspinning was using. This made it a bit harder to learn (I went back to her and she taught me! Yay!), but it was fab. So in the end I bought 200g of merino and 200g of alpaca fibre (undyed) and I am now practising.

I also bought fantastic yarn called Manos del Uruguay, Manos Silk Blend. It was £18 ($32) for two skeins and I hope to make a small Clapotis after I finish my shawl. And a Clover yo-yo maker. This funny little gadget is for leftover bits of fabric. You can sew them into decorative disks which you can use for decorative projects. I also watch a catwalk presentation by Maggie Jackson from Maggiknits. And although her work is very high standard and funky it was not my cup of tea. A bit too much going on in her creations. I like more classic knits I guess.

There was so much more: Yarn Harlot gave a talk (I missed out as the tickets had sold out), I had a chat with the Dutch Knitters over from Holland and it was great to speak to my fellow Dutchies. I made new friends, saw enormous knitting needles and saw gorgeous knitted projects. Can't wait till next year!



One of the Clover Yo-yo projects

Links:
Shaped yo-yo Clover projects
Normal yo-yo Clover projects
Ravelry links:
Manos Silk Blend yarn
Adamas Shawl I'm working on...

Cheap Jane Austen TV Films on iTunes

Last year ITV had a Jane Austen Season and showed three new adaptations and one older one on the telly. One of them I didn't like at all, one was oke and two where very good indeed. See my review below for more info. For all of you who already know all about any and every Jane Austen Adaptation I shall come straight to the point.

On the English version of iTunes (I don't know if other county versions have the same) you can get Emma with Beckinsale and Nothanger Abbey with Felicity Jones for a mere £ 1.98!!!!
To find these by going to the iTunes Store. Click on 'TV Programmes', you can find this in the top left menu. A new menu appears below the one you just clicked with 'Studio/Channels'. Find 'ITV' in the list and click it. A new page loads with all that ITV offers including the two Jane Austen Films. Hooray!!!

To be clear. After you bought the films you can only download them once. So download them to your home computer (not work as I almost did). After they are downloaded you can watch them on screen and/or place them on your iPod. Watch them as often as you like! I've watched Nothanger Abbey on my screen and the image was pretty much what I expected for a tv movie: not great, but by no means bad. I thought it well worth the money and now I've seen how good the movie is I'll be looking out for the DVD as well as I wouldn't mind having one version on my iPod for when I travel and one for watching lazily from the sofa.


The Jane Austen ITV Adaptations




There was the horrible version of Mansfield Park with Billie Piper who really didn't pull off the role at all. I'm a very great fan of Jane Austen Adaptations off all kind and not very critical at all. If it remotely resembles the story and people wear pretty froks I'm half on my way of being pleased. But with this Mansfield Park I didn't get much futher than half way as indeed the best thing I can say about this tv movie is just that: it remotely follows the story line of Jane Austen and there are girls in pretty dresses. Although to be fair it seems hard to make into a good movie from the story. The 1999 version of Mansfield Park is alright, but by no means great. And although I liked actress Frances O'Conner, she was rather too old!



And older adaptation they showed again was Emma with Kate Beckinsale. This adaptation I liked, but for some reason I had trouble liking this Emma. When Gwyneth Paltrow plays her, Emma has a certain sweetness over her that I also see in the book. Kate somehow doesn't have that, which makes me feel that her Emma is a little bit more stuck up and less remorsefull of her own actions. Nevertheless I bought the DVD and it's part of my collection and long over due a view.



The last film I saw last year was the new adaptation of Persuasion. I always loved the book and the film version of Persuasion (1995) with Amanda Root. The story is very mature and the new adaptation had a very fresh feel without sacrificing the familiar story too much. Ofcourse a tv film has only a certain amount of minutes to tell the story so it has been cut, but all in all I really loved this version and it's on my 'to buy list'. Actress Sally Hawkins did a good job!





The only film I missed out on last year was Nothanger Abbey. I felt really sad as I would have like to see a different version that the horrible 1986 Northanger Abbey in my collection. So when I spotted it at iTunes for a very good price I grabbed my chance. And what a relief... it's great. It has that fresh feel to it. The actress playing Cathrine, Felicity Jones, is great she has that fresh faced young girl feel to it, with an overactive sensual imagination which young girl so often have. I loved it!!

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!

More Pilgrim!

Of some things you can never have enough when you're a girl: shoes, bags and jewellery. I'm a big fan of Pilgrim a Danish brand that sells very stylish and affordable jewellery. The face of Pilgrim used to be Liv Tyler, and a very good job she did, but they have changed to Helena Christensen. I've always liked Helena, but was quite used to Liv. Liv made it seem quite wearable and Helena makes it more.. model like. But this doesn't matter in the end as there is always something that I like. And now on to my three new (well I got them a few months back for Valentines) items.


Liv... one of us


Helena... much more glam!


I'm a big fan of the tv-show (no longer running) called The Gilmore Girls. Lorelei Gilmore often wears pretty little earrings and I fancied something similar. Normaly I wear long and big earring a lot and I have a lack of small cutie earrings. That's why I'm so happy with these. They are quite big for studs and have a georgeous green colour. They look ab fab and I love to wear them.


Lorelei Gilmore with cute earrings


Big small earrings!

I also got a combo of earrings (studs again) and a ring of similar design. I like wearing these when my clothes are simple (black tee on jeans) just to add a bit of colour without 'screaming'. The ring can be adjusted in size so it can be worn on different fingers, but I usually just wear it on the same one.


Little flower earrings


...and big matching ring!

My new baby...

This month as a celebration of my better financial situation I decided to buy myself this tinsy tiny little laptop called an Asus EEE. It's really small, so small even that my boyfriend calls it my calculator.

The operating system is Linux (very easy to use!!), but you could install a low spec Windows on it. It has 512 MB memory and a 4 gig hard drive, build in speakers, microphone and webcam. Battery is small and lasts circa 2.8 hours (I find this shorter).


A cutie small little laptop.. aka my calculator!

It has build in wifi so connecting to the internet is a breeze. The Linux operating system is very easy to use. I bought this little gem at PC World for £249.99 (circa $500) which is a whole lot cheaper than most laptops. This is because of the size, and it's spec. The EEE is a notebook that falls into a catagory of it's own.

Initially developed for children to use for school and developting countries Asus is finding that here in the richer west the demand for this little beauties is quite high. I had a lot of trouble finding one. This also because I wanted a green one, which seemed to be sold out everywhere, and I didn't want to pay more than £250.


Pretty colours

I choose this tiny simple laptop in favour of a more posh powerfull one because of practicallity. This mini baby fits in my handbag (no one knowing i'm carring a laptop) and is great for travel. And so later this week I will test it out as I'll be visiting family and friends back in Holland. :)

I might review it properly at a later date when I've spend more time using it. Verdict so far is a big fat: SUPER DUPER!

bon bon(d) wrappers

Pretty colours... nice scent

Like Gwen Stefani sang: If i was a rich girl.. la la la la la la lalala la. Well if I was a rich girl I might have bought this little box full with colourfull wrappers. Inside is a little glass vial of perfum. However I would need to be quite rich in order to spend £182 ($264) on something so indulgent and unnessesary. Until then I thought the pretty colours could brighten up my blog for nothing. Hehe. Inspiration is free!!!!

Spotted on the Kiss and Makeup blog in February, made by Bond no. 9 and sold by our very own Harrods.

Yarn Crawl

The Thursday before easter we got the afternoon of at our office and so me and my friend Louisa thought it a good oportunity to head to some yarn stores in London and buy some yarn.


iKnit, you knit, we knit!!!

We discovered that iKnit London had moved... closer!! It used to be in Vauxhall but now it’s moved to Waterloo. So we did a test run (walk) and it is now possible for us to walk there in 20 minutes from our office near London Bridge. So that means: 20 x 2 = 40 min walking which leave: 20 min shopping! Hooray! Ofcourse on our first visit we stayed much longer and inspected everything they had. A very nice customer (who was knitting on the comfy sofa they have gave us advice and joined in a chat. What a nice vibe it was. Hooray once more for iKnit.


Summery colours...

In the end I bought wooden dps (tiny ones for portability), a pattern booklet with something I liked and something Lousia liked and a skein of lovely yarn: The Natural Dye Studio Dazzle - Blue Faced Leicester 4ply/Sock. This yank reminded me of watermelons, summer, nice bright weather and all things cosy. Talking about watermelons... my Ravelry friend Just Claire posted some very fun watermelon stitchmarkers on her blog! Very nice! Makes me think of getting back into fimo.


Super cool 'summery' stitchmarkers

After this nice purchase we left to proceed to our next yarn shop: Loop. Ofcourse it rained. It’s London in March what do you expect. It was very windy too and I just managed not to get soaked and not loose my umbrella (or fly away like those horrible nannies in Mary Poppins). The bus (number 341 a direct line to the next stop on our yarn crawl) just didn’t want to come and we wondered if we would felt. In the end we didn’t felt and the bus did come and we managed to find Loop (with the help of a lovely lady. She saw us on the bus and hear us talking about the stop. It then seem the most important thing to her to get us off at the right one. She kept word and we left her happy in the knowledge she’d done her good deed of the day.


Loop: cute but lacking a warm welcome


Stepping into Loop was completely different from what I expected. It was the tinest little shop and very cute. It was stuffed full with yarn (<- very good), but there was no place to sit and socialise (<- not so good). The vibe was not bad, but it lacked that ‘feeling welcome and at home’ vibe. The single member of staff (owner?) didn’t seem very happy, perhaps because of the weather, but it was a little bit of a let down. We saw the cutest things though like this little felted chick filled with sand that could sit on a ledge with it’s feet dangling down. Soooo cute. We also saw the famous Knitted Vases. I was planning to do a blog post on this, but a pic will do just fine. When you can see there is not much more to add.


Knitted or not...

Anyway back to yarn. I also found two good candidates for my One Skein shrug that I am planning to make. The first was a very nice fluffy Alpaca (if I remember correctly) that was loosly spun and very lovely. The second and the one that ultimately came home with me was two skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes. The first felt very nice, but the colour of the second suited me better. And I have to say I’m well pleased with my purchase. It’s a bit ropey and looks ‘thight’ not loose and fluffy if you get my meaning. But this means a very ‘structured’ knitted feel to the ‘fabric’ once I knit it up... well I hope.


Yummie yarn soon to be my shrug

And finally we stepped into a ‘cornershop’ type yarnshop just around the corner from Louisa and I tell you it’s a good find. It looks cheap and is filled with ‘cheap’ acrylic, but they also carry the good standard brands, like Rowan. And it’s very affordable as they are not overpricing like the ‘posh’ yarn shops. The shop also sells tons of other craft stuff and it’s a good thing we are redecorating and I can’t get my sewing machine out... Such nice notations. Sigh... And on that note I’ll end my long long post. Happy Knitting everyone (and me!!).

If you are not in the UK you can visit these shops online:
iKnit Online Shop
Loop Online Shop

The Beauty of Handmade

In this world of Made in China handmade products are heaven send. I hope that financially I’ll soon be better off and able to afford some handmade myself. In the mean time let me show you this treasure and then tire you with some issues.


The most sophisticated cupcakes I've ever seen...

On Ravelry we find all things knitted. Great patterns and great gifts! One of the most inspirational and beautiful finds are products made by Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits. I first spotted her work when I did a tag search in Rav for cupcakes. These beautiful cupcakes appeared and where sooooo yummie I almost ate my monitor! :P I checked out the maker and found other items she made every better. Julie is the maker of the cutest toys ever seen (hence the name: Little Cotton Rabbits). She makes all sort of toys (not just rabbits) that seem alive with goodness and kindness. I tell you they are so cute you don’t care you’re not 6 years old no more. Some toys are ageless and these are like that. They have a good old fashion feel to them and yet are hip and happening. So if you fancy owning one or giving one, or you just want to check out Julie’s work, then visit her webshop and keep up to date with Julie’s Blog and don't forget to check out her free patterns!


Little Cotton cuties! The perfect gift!

So why buy handmade? Well I guess I could now start a whole talk about capitalism and consumerism or whatever –ism may be in right now, but it’s not that complicated. We live in a world where you can not escape mass produced products without making it your lifes purpose. So you can choose that route or simple not bother with any of it at all, but there is also the middle way. Where you can (and can afford) choose handmade. This also goes for organic and fair trade. If the whole western population where to choose handmade for every 1 item in a 100 they bought, it would change the world. You may not realise this as an individual, but you are part of a great mass of buyers. You are in a way like a star in the sky... one amonst billions. If we all choose to buy handmade once in every 100 buys the volume will be vast! So for the next birthday perhaps you will consider something hand made. And there are great gifts. Look on Etsy and you will have trouble choosing between all the great (extremely affordable) finds.

Knitting books & magazines

*note: most links are to Ravelry, you can't see page: become a member... Where have you been!! Ravelry is a must!

I've had such a good December, also knitting wise. From mom and dad I got One Skein (finaly) and it's great. At the moment of writing I've got the Petal Bib from the book on the needles. So far I'm really enjoying the project. In the Ravelry que you will also find the bath mat from this book. I spotted this version from eudaemonist on Rav and love the colour. Perfect!


Finally on the bookshelf

In the January sales I picked up 3 skeins of Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere, which I made into a lovely soft hat (a post on that project soon!). I also bought the book Debbie Bliss Pure Cashmere (as it was less than £4). And I used the Ribbed Beanie pattern as inspiration for my hat. There are many patterns I like in this book. The Moss Stitch Beanie is high on my list as is the lacy scarf.


Soooo luxurious... cashmere! Mmmmmm

I also ordered two magazines from Fibrecrafts (very good service!) and got them just before christmas. First of I couldn't resist the 2007 summer edition of Interweave Knits. The jumper on the cover, the Wheat-Ear Cable Yoke alone makes it worth the money. Also there is a toe up sock pattern, On-Your-Toes socks, I wouldn't mind trying. There is a hat for men (boys) by Kate Gilbert that is very nice, called Syncopated Caps. Very cool looking Spiral Boot Socks, Lacy Yoga Bags and a very pretty Oriel Lace Blouse. In short a lot to knit!


Where to begin...

The second magazine I ordered from Fibrecraft is Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2007. This was very lucky as the magazine was sold out everywhere I looked. So having got my hands on this nice mag my to do list could only grow.
My eye first fell on the gorgeous Sugarplum Shrug and Sweetheart socks. Super high on my to do is the Koolhaas hat and the Little Gem Mitts. Gosh and Citrine Socklets and cute Garter Mug Cozies...

All I need now is a bucket load of money for all the materials and even more important: TIME!


Hard to get edition

Protect and Perfect, review 1

Does it really work?

A while back I purchased Boots' No.7 Protect and Perfect serum for the first time. And as I promised (see old P&P blog post) here is the review. The tiny tube is almost finished and I'm very unsure what to make of it. Let me explain...

I don't see any difference whatsoever. None at all. But seeing myself in the mirror every day might change my objectivity. Maybe I look like a baby but because the change was gratual I don't see it. Seriously I think I look pretty much the same. And this review would have conclude here where it not for an incedent that I must mention.

The Friday after Christmas I was off work, but my boyfriend had to go in and earn a living (as they say). So I walked down to the town center to meet him for lunch. At the end of our rendez-vous we popped into the supermarket to pick up some last minute things, amongst them a bottle of french brandy for the christmas pudding. We wanted to light it up that evening to celebrate new year. As his lunchbreak was nearly over he rushed off back to work and I queued up to pay. And then it happend. The boy behind the till subtely signalled a senior cashier. She came over and asked, very politely and understated, for some id. I grabbed my drivers license mumbling that I was 29 years old! She checked (I pointed out my year of birth 1978 and saw her make the mental calculation) and sold me the brandy. I mumbeled something like 'I guess it's a compliment!' and walked home. Stunned all the way. I was told that Waitrose, the supermarket in question, doesn't sell alcohol to under 21's. So that's a nine years difference. Still it's quite a gap and this hasn't happend to me for ages.

Another event now springs to mind. A new colleague thought I was younger too! She mentioned 25. Again that hasn't happend since I probably was 25. The question now arises... is it the Protect and Perfect serum or just plain stupid luck. I don't think I look younger than 29. Four years off is understandable though, but nine?!


New P&P products...

On the basis of these events I've decided to continue the use of the product and when my old creams are finished to try the new Protect and Perfect Day and Night creams too! Who knows I might end up looking 18 again!

Search for Protect and Perfect product on the Boots.com website to find the new products.

For luck

Santa has been very good to me this year. On my wishlist I had this necklace from my favorite jewelry store of the moment Pilgrim. Yes the one with Liv Tyler. My sweet sweet boyfriend was good enough to go out and get me this necklace (below) with pretty purple stones. It looks so nice! And what is more it's so meeeee. My nickname is Vier (which means four in Dutch) and vier is associated (by me) with a four leaf clover. Which in turn stands for luck. Soooo this is my new good luck necklace. It will remind me of taking oportunities and living life to the max. To luck!


My lucky necklace

See my older post on Pilgrim Jewelry...

Face Training

I'm very much into my DS and I can't wait for Nintendo to release their face training here in Europe. Face Training on a DS? Isn't that a kiddies handheld computer console you ask. Well, yes and no. Nintendo are releasing more and more 'games' that are targeted to the aldult market. Things like Brain Training, Suduko and a new release Sight Training. This last 'game' helps you improve your eyesight (or so I'm told).


Train your face...

And now you can train your face, well if you're Japanese. They get all the super cool new stuff. The idea is that you insert the camera that comes with the 'game' into the DS and switch it on. You can then rest it on it's stand (also in the 'game' pack) and start making funny faces that get displayed on the screen. This should make your face less wrinkly and more fresh looking. I'm all for silly gadgets and crazy new (non operative) beauty tricks, so I can't wait till it's available here. I know, I know... why spend money on such things but I like them and I can't help it. I'm a gadget freak. :D

Have a look at the Japanese Face Training site.

Ben & Jerry's lip balm

Mmmmmmmm...

Hooray! Even though I'm on a diet I can have as much Ben & Jerry's as I could ever wish for. Because.. they now got lip balms!!! Isn't that fantastic. They are four Pounds ($8), so that's not bad either. Bet they last a little bit longer than the ice cream version.

The smell of snow!

What would make my Christmas? Or anyone’s Christmas I hope? That one thing we hardly ever get: Snow! A white Christmas is fantastic!! I love snow and everything about it. The way it looks.. the sound when you walk over it, the feel of it, etc, etc. And also the smell. Although come to think of it I can’t remember what that smell is. So I’m quite intrigued by this little find: A Snow Perfume.


Snow in April, Photo from Vanguardist.org

The description on the shops website says: The Library of Fragrance were able to capture the essence of Snow in a scent; chilling, cool, clean and fresh, with a touch of dust (necessary to form flakes) and earth (upon which to rest). Wow that is quite a feat! It’s from a line of perfumes with all sorts of odd scents. From Hot Fudge Sundae, Baby Powder, Clean Windows, Dirt and Earl Grey Tea to Gin & Tonic, Grass, Holy Water, Glue and Play-Doh, they’ve got it. I wouldn't mind trying Rain, Thunderstorm or Wet Garden. Althought the idea of perfume de Lettuce makes me wriggle my nose. Who would like to smell like that?? Dirt I understand if you got a 8 year old. They would love that smell. :D But I can't think of any situation when Lettuce appeals.

And all these weird smells are not that expensive either for 12 Pounds ($24) for 30 ml or 6 Pounds ($12) for 15 ml the smell of Snow can be yours to sniff at whenever you feel like it. I'm tempted to get some just to try. If I do I'll let you know what it's like to sniff snow.


Snow in a bottle... tempting

At the product description they mentioned the different words for snow the Inuit have. Here is the list mentioned:

• Anniu - Falling Snow
• Api - Ground Snow
• Siqoq - Smoky, Drifting Snow
• Upsik - Wind-Beaten Snow
• Kimoaqtruk - Snow Drift
• Salumaroaq - Smooth Snowy Surface of Fine Particles
• Natatgonaq - Rough Snowy Surface of Large Particles

See how inspired you can get from snow. Lets all hope we'll get a nice fair pack around Christmas :D

Russian dolls

Cute Russian make-up dolls from Pupa

I bumped into these super cute make-up kits on the Kiss and Make up Blog. Aren’t they georgeous. They are made by Pupa, a brand known for it’s cute make-up. I would buy them if I wasn’t already feeling bad for the amount of make-up I’ve got. If you want them they are for sale on the Spoiled Brat website. Odd name as it’s not really positive feeling now is it to buy from a store with a name like that.. might be me? Anyway I think they would make great, no lets rephrase, fantastic gifts for Christmas. What girl age 15 and up would like one of these???


Dior Detective Chic Eye Palette

The reason I feel bad about my make-up is that I bought more on holiday. On the way back I was tempted into buying this Dior Detective case. Isn’t it nice. The colours are perfect for autumn and winter. Couldn’t resist.

Protect and Perfect

Two magic words: Protect and Perfect. That and a scientist that said: this works! Also magic words I guess. And a craze was born. And now I've finally gone and joined the No. 7 fanclub. I came across an old blog post about how Boots No. 7 Protect and Perfect serum actually works and though that I might give it a go. As a new import and not one for hypes it might be a good idea to actually use something that might work :). I'll keep you posted on how I find the stuff.

Click here to read about the shopping frenzy it created.

Pilgrim Jewelry

Have you heard of Pilgrim yet? It’s a fantasic brand that makes jewelry. And nice it is too. It has the typical clean look of scandinavian design and Liv Tyler as their model (Arwen from Lord of the Rings). She makes a good job of it I think, presenting a sophisticated look, serene beauty, timeless. No frilly bit here.


The ever gorgeous Liv

The inspiration for their latest collection comes from Modern buildings and ancient forests. A great combo if you ask me. There are many pieces I like, some I’m not so keen on, but that is only from a ‘it wouldn’t look good on me’ point of view.

Imagine my surpise when on my birthday in September my boyfriend gave me this necklace and earrings as a gift. I had pointed them out weeks before and completely forgot them, but he remembered. And every time I wear it I feel special. Sigh.


It's even nicer in reality

The design I liked because of the leaves and the colours of the stones. It reminds me of a forrest on a misty spring morning. The leaves are fresh and new, but you can’t see the bright colours because of the mist. Perhaps a bit far fetched, but I can’t help it. I’m like that. Hihi.


Beautiful earrings

One last note of this great brand. Pilgrim also makes special edition jewelry. If you buy these pieces they donate money to charity. They have info on the Pilgrim website about this globe, but I’ve also seen a pair of sunglasses and a keychain that was a special charity edition. So keep your eye out for them. They make great gifts too!!!

Autumn make-up looks

I love make-up. The stuff is fantastic in my opinion. Although i'm not an addict, sometimes I go days without any make-up at all, I do have a soft spot for it. For fresh inspiration I check the big brands every now and then to see what is new. This time I came across this fantastic look on Dior's website. Monica Bellucci is a very beautifull woman, this make-up I think is very wearable for every day use.



Another great source for the latest make-up looks is Neiman Marcus. This American store has a handsome collection to pick from and all come with an explanation on how to get such a look.