Thursday, February 5, 2015

I like my men like I like my…

Books                      Novel. Unpredictable. With a spine.

Carpets                   Stylish. Rugged. Lets me walk all over them.

Babies                      Adorable. Potty-trained. With a nice crib.

Taxis                        Clean. Safe. Willing to go to Brooklyn.

Flights                     Smooth. Minimal baggage. With an emergency exit.

Floors                      Polished. Grounded. Underneath me.

Facebook Wall     Candid. Likable. Without babies.

My favourites from this list via McSweeneys

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

How to Live

Hemingway

Hemingway, on how to live.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Birthday Sushi

Sophia turns ONE next month and her Mama bear is looking for party ideas.  Here’s one that would be awesome:

conveyor sushi diy

At-home sushi conveyor belt via Kidcrave

Aaaaand I just know you’re rolling your eyes at the idea of serving sushi to children instead of the chocolate and cake and sugar they await.  I will answer your collective eye-roll with this:

sushi birthday1

sushi birthday2

Sweets that look like sushi via Dinner: A Love Story.  Yes. amazing.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Send Glitter to your Enemies!

This is the wackiest (and most hilarious) idea I’ve seen in a really long time.  If you hate someone (I mean, really, hate them), you can enlist the help of the evil geniuses at Ship Your Enemies Glitter to f**k up their day.  All for the bargain price of $9.99!

send glitter to your enemies

This is for real.  Obviously, I would never actually do this and if anyone gets a glitter package, it definitely wasn’t from me.  I did, however, thoroughly enjoy reading the FAQs and Reviews section of their site.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Minimalist Challenge

I’m strongly considering undertaking this 30-day minimalism challenge.  Some of the days seem pretty easy, while others are daunting.  I’m looking at you, number 13!

minimalismchallenge4

Who’s with me on this? 

via Into Mind

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Which Tea?

I LOVE tea, but I only drink the worst kind – strong black breakfast tea; higher in caffeine than the rest, lower in antioxidants, extra-processed, tooth-staining… and that’s before I add the demon sugar in.  So my tea didn’t make the cut for this list of how to treat different conditions with tea.

Tea

Good to know, anyway.  I’m still not convinced than drinking ginger tea would make me feel less nauseous though.  Ugh.

Image via Pinterest

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

How I Contour

There are a gazillion face contouring guides and videos on the web.  Most of the ones I’ve seen have been overly detailed, and off-putting.  I don’t want to complicate things further.  For me, contouring is not an every day thing, but I love the effect for nights-out.  What I do is very simple – it’s this:

Contouring

…and blend (of course).  That’s it!

My holy grail contouring product is Tom Ford Shade & Illuminate palette, but it is pricy.  You can get the same general effect using your favourite bronzer and a liquid concealer in a shade lighter than your skin colour/ foundation.  

Photo via Danish Streets

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Celebrity Do-gooders

emma stone1emma stone2emma stone3

As if I needed another reason to love Emma Stone…

Monday, January 19, 2015

Quick Quiz

Chris Rock child eaten by a camel

It’s the most depressing day of the year, apparently, but this might make you smile.  Happy (Blue) Monday peeps.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Emoji Ink

little t

Now you can draw with Emoji!  I got inexplicably excited about this…

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Table Tents

Table tents

This is the stuff of my childhood dreams.  Available here on Etsy.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The Best Hot Chocolate You’ll Ever Taste

Maybe.  In fact, that is very obnoxious of me to suggest – and probably not even true.  If you’ve ever been (or will be) to O’Conaill’s Chocolate Shop on French Church Street in Cork, Ireland, then it is most certainly not true.  Their signature hot chocolate is better than mine.  I guess that goes without saying.

hot chocolate

Allow me to start again.  This is a very decent hot chocolate recipe, that I came up with myself and that you will definitely not hate.  There!  The recipe was actually intended as a recreation of the O’Conaill’s one I was craving in the run up to Christmas, while I was still in Abu Dhabi and thousands of miles away from that kind of perfection. 

Here’s the recipe.  It’s for those of you who, like me, think of hot chocolate as more dessert than drink… though I’m sure you could lower the chocolate: milk ratio and that would work too.

Hot Chocolate (makes 2 standard sized mugs)

What you’ll need:

Semi-skimmed milk (Use the mugs to measure – 2 almost-full mugs)

35-40g good quality dark chocolate (70%+)

35-40g good quality white chocolate

35 –40g Lindt Excellence Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate (this exact one)

A good pinch of Maldon salt

Here’s how:

  • Cut the chocolate into smallish chunks
  • Warm the milk in a small saucepan over a medium heat. As the milk starts to heats up, add the chocolate and start whisking until all the chocolate is melted.  Don’t allow the milk to boil – you want lots of steam but no bubbles. 
  • Add the salt and whisk one last time before pouring into the mugs to serve
  • Jamie Oliver has this trick for hot chocolate that I sometimes do, but sometimes don’t bother with.  Right before serving, you pour the mixture into a large flask, ensuring there is lots of space at the top.  Screw on the lid and shake it (like you would with a cocktail shaker) for a couple of minutes.  This makes the milk nice and frothy.  Include that step too, if you’re really trying to impress. 

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Balloon Ice

Here’s a fun party trick.

Balloon ice

Water balloons, filled and frozen, will create perfectly formed ice-balls that won’t dilute your favourite Scotch.  No fancy schmancy cocktail equipment necessary.

via Saveur

Monday, January 12, 2015

The Amazing Un-stealable Bicycle

 Unstealable bicycle

Clever, clever students at the Universidad Adolfo Ibanez (Chile) have designed this: the world’s first un-stealable bike.  It converts into its own lock, meaning that if the lock is broken, the bike is rendered useless to the thief!  Clever, clever, clever.  Beautiful design too.

Read more about The Yerka Project here.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

The Best IKEA Hack

This past Christmas was extra special for our family as it was the first one with little Sophia.  I was excited to make it home to see her again after five long months – she had doubled her age in that time!  It all happens too fast.  One of the nice things about having a baby around at Christmastime is that children’s gifts are always the most fun.  Sophia got Lego from Santa Claus, lots of musical instruments (drums are her favourite) and even a baby-sized Mini Cooper from her Uncle Richie.

If I had seen this IKEA hack before Christmas, I’d like to think I could have made it happen and delivered the best present of all.

IKEA hack1

How awesome?  Have a look at the before. 

IKEA hack2

IKEA hack3

I love the little details, like the subway tiles and chic lighting. 

IKEA hack4

IKEA Hack5

IKEA hack6

Fiona, we have to attempt this sometime in the next year.