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
Sophia turns ONE next month and her Mama bear is looking for party ideas. Here’s one that would be awesome:
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:
Sweets that look like sushi via Dinner: A Love Story. Yes. amazing.
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!
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.
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!
Who’s with me on this?
via Into Mind
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.
Good to know, anyway. I’m still not convinced than drinking ginger tea would make me feel less nauseous though. Ugh.
Image via Pinterest
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:
…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
It’s the most depressing day of the year, apparently, but this might make you smile. Happy (Blue) Monday peeps.
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.
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:
Here’s a fun party trick.
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
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.
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.
How awesome? Have a look at the before.
I love the little details, like the subway tiles and chic lighting.
Fiona, we have to attempt this sometime in the next year.
