something to win...

(at least for the German ladies)
Nachtminze is giving away some veeery nice things on her blog and everyone is allowed to join, no matter if you have your own blog or not. So if you would like to win some Urban Decay treats or the new "It´s raining men" shower gel from Lush - check it out. Anyway, for anyone intrested in beauty and cosmetics I can only recommend the blog with it´s cute design and interesting name.

just like Fred Astaire

I´m a brogue lover...and I love old films...and Primark. So this pair of shoes that only cost 8 Pounds was and is the perfect match for me. Don´t know how long they will last but right now I enjoy wearing them...and imagine I´m time-travelling to a place where men are still wearing two-tone shoes...and dance...and sing...and are gentlemen. My granny used to wear that sort of shoes and always got looked at, she probably only was ahead of her time :-)

The King´s Speech

Yesterday I finally had the chance to see this year´s Oscar favourite (and as we now know, Oscar winner) with my beloved Colin Firth playing the main character, George VI. Took me a while to find a cinema which was showing it in the original English version (really don´t know why the Germans, which are in general quite interested and talented in learning foreign languages, still love their films dubbed...).
With all the media hype I guess everyone is aquainted with the plot. As I´m always fascinated by English history and the Royal family I simply had to see it. And my deep love for Colin Firth since I saw him in "Pride and Prejudice" for the first time of course supported my interest in the film.

www.ingame.de

So what is my opinion on it now? I really enjoyed it, it´s a very interesting topic and it´s all done in a smooth and beautiful-to-look-at way. Helena Bonham-Carter always manages to scare me a lot no matter what she is playing so it added a new dimension - for me - to see Queen Mum scary ;-)
It´s fun to see Margaret and Elisabeth as small, cute girls, already with corgies by their side. The lady who played Logue´s wife kept me thinking "I know that face, I know that voice!?" - and indeed I do. It´s Jennifer Ehle aka Elisabeth Bennet in the already mentioned "Pride and Prejudice". Colin Firth is worth seeing and as sexy as he always is (once saw him described as the "George Clooney for the intellectual woman") but I didn´t really think that his performance was outstanding. Sometimes I thought he got a bit overshadowed by the brilliant Logue (Geoffrey Rush). But the film managed one thing, I spend half the night afterwards reading up on English history on wikipedia...and ordered a Queen Mum biography.

What friends are for...

inspired by Miss Winkelmann's very interesting "Blogstoeckchen":

www.valmg.com

-describe your circle of friends
it's not one homogeneous circle. More a mix of little groups of 3 (including me) or single friends...and they normally don't mix. I seem to have my old uni friends, school friends, new uni friends, etc. Basically all the people who take the hassle of staying in contact with me even if I'm not at home for months. Unfortunately experience has shown that some people seem to forget you as soon as they don't see you anymore...

-do you have a best friend?
yes, and she probably is one of the people I have the least in common with of all which might look a bit strange from the outside. I have never been someone with a sister-like best friend to share everything with so best friend for me means less the actual time spend together than that we always stay in touch more or less, no matter what.

-do you easily make new friends?
I don't have big problems getting to know new people but, as my friendship standards are fairly high, I can't say I'm building up many new friendships.

-important characteristics of a friendship
attention, sensitivity, reliability and the way you can meet again after a while and feel close and comfortable straightaway

-friendship between man and woman, is it possible?
in my experience it is possible if both are in a healthy relationship otherwise one sooner or later gets jealous

-which is your part amongst your friends?
the organizer, secretary and event-manager. And the one who seems to have the most exotic lifestyle despite being quite boring :-)

-what's more important for you? family or friends?
might sound harsh for some but: definitely family!

-do you prefer your own friends or friends you have together as a couple?
In a long distance relationship you usually "only" have your own set of friends so I don't know

(hopefully) not my final curtain

I never learned how to sew my own curtains but now that we are having the new house I´m more than eager to learn it. The variety of retro prints at IKEA is simply too tempting so I bought 7m of this fabric today and will try my luck soon in order to get some proper, cheap and stylish curtains for the staircase windows. Looking for sewing classes but they are all at the wrong times...let´s hope I will be patient enough :-)
At least my running gag of "I really should learn how to sew" everytime when I´m in IKEA should finally come to an end then.

www.ikea.de

Step by Step

English people (forgive me my use of the term "English" as a synonym for all British people) love carpet. No surprise really after having seen their taste in gigantic sofas or weirdly decorated windows...
Stairs here, no matter how steep or tiny or new they are (and everyone who has spend time on the island knows that they almost ever belong in the steep category), they are covered in carpet all the way around. No hope of getting a glimpse of what might be underneath.
I like wooden stairs but always get told that the wood underneath is too worn and ugly to be stripped bare. There goes my vision of wooden stairs with colourful vintage tiles underneath (as seen in some magazines and an "Urban Outfitters" store). I think carpet stairs are a bit strange. You walk a lot on them so you basically cover one of the most dirt sensitive areas of the house with something that gets dirty. And I have problems running down fluffy stairs...but that´s just German me ;-) Unless our cat uses the carpet even more to sharpen his claws, I think we are stuck with the fluffines for quite a while now...

how they should look...a non-fluff-zone

www.flickr.com

new shoes...again

I normally don't shop a lot when I'm in Germany as I find all shops and things simply boring (and I'm normally lacking spare money when I'm back from a months long British shopping spree ;-)).
Yesterday, while learning for my exams, I made an (online) exeption and ordered those:

www.deichmann.de

Liked them the first time I saw them live in the shop but hesitated...now they were on sale (my taste must be weird - everything I like goes on sale sooner or later) and I couldn't resist anymore. I mean, come on, they were only 14,90 Euros now!

What's in your bag?

After seeing this on several blogs now I simply had to join in. Seems to be quite inexplicable to me why we all are so fascinated seeing other peoples everyday items on display but I always love those pictures and they somehow inspire me a lot.
So here is mine, much more tidy than I normally am but I swap between bags so many times that clutter has no chance to build up.

If you want to see more check out the Dos family blog !

Love is in the Air...

I don´t give a sh*t about Valentine´s Day, never have done as I find it simply pretentious and all the merchandising is just awful and trashy kitsch. But I like flowers, not all sorts but in general, yeah. Yesterday I had to find out that I don´t care about Valentine´s Day as long as someone recognizes it and sends me some flowers or at least a card. Nothing happened...so from now on I actually care a LOT.

And by the way, my absolute favourite flowers are white lilies. And I don´t like cut red roses...and plastic stuff in bouquets...

www.blumenbutler.de

               

www.blumenbutler.de

Sofas

When I enter a typical English house what strikes me is the size of the sofas. Is it just me or do the Brits like their sofas to be simply huuuuge!?!
The average living room hardly has space for anything else, it´s all centered around the (giant, expensive) flat screen tv and the sky+ box. I´m sure even German living rooms which are normally a bit more spacious would capitulate. Even though similar shopping outlets are slowly finding their way into the German market now England is absolutey full of them! And each and every one of those sofa empires is equally ugly and tasteless (and, to believe Mary Portas - the Queen of Shops - in her latest program their customer service is absolutely shit as well). Nothing wrong with a nice comfy sofa but I will always opt for the less English option...

PS: Nearly forgot the most annoying thing - their constant sales, half price or whatelse they come up with weeks advertised again and again and again and*yawn...I don´t believe it, they are just pushing

www.harveysfurniture.co.uk

YSL Paris

Last week I made a re-discovery - Yves Saint Laurent's scent "Paris" which is on the market for some decades now. Not sure if it was my new black and white striped Primark jumper with the little red hearts or my new black eyeliner that I let my inner Parisian out (there is one in me -I swear! - but instead of conjugating verbs and being slender and chic it sits in a café and indulges in coffee, croissants and red wine...) and suddenly thought of the half empty bottle on my perfume shelf again.
(Is it just me? I quite often colour- and style-code my perfume with my outfit...jeans, a plain white shirt and a bagpack would e.g. NEVER go together with Chanel 5...a bit like wearing something velvety only to match it with CK one, doesn´t work...for strange me at least)

www.squidoo.com

So I gave this flowery classic a try again and really liked it. A fairly heavy scent but still with enough of spring in it to make it everyday wearable. So I enjoyed a few french days, wait with anticipation what will inspire me next week and will definitely return to good-old "Paris" in the near future again...

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella

A few weeks ago I went to the Sadler's Wells theatre in London to see Matthew Bourne's version of "Cinderella", the ballet with the music of Prokofieff (not Tschaikowsky as some people might have expected). What I did read before was that the plot was transferred to London during world war II which I thought would be very interesting and definitely an unusual twist on the well known story.
The setting sort of worked and  as a pleasant side effect (or maybe the real idea behind it) it allowed the dancers to wear very chic and lavish costumes.

www.bradford-theatres.co.uk

I´m a Prokofieff fan (I think "Romeo & Juliet" is one of most beautiful bits of music ever written in this world) so I enjoyed the music - unfortunately not played by a live orchestra but in a production like this that cannot be expected I guess... The subtle changes of the plot to catapult it into the 1940´s were ok but nothing exciting. The whole ballet went on a bit and after a while I got slightly bored of all the Lindy Hop on stage...
It was definitely a pleasant way to spend a grey London afternoon but didn´t have the impact and beauty of last years "Swan Lake" production. Not enough "proper" dance, too much show and repetition...

I´m a Barbiegirl...

...I really don´t know why but since I saw the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson wearing that light pink wig in "Lost in Translation" I like the idea of having pink hair. Now it seems to get more and more into fashion and my interest in it turns into something like an obsession. The only problem is - will I ever be brave enough to bleach my hair basically white first?? And will my super fine baby hair survive that? And will I be brave enough to sport that look outside Brighton or London?
Will think about it for a bit longer I guess...and will stay obsessed for now :-)

www.rp-online.de

I think I will give it a try and buy that wig...seen it for under 10 Euros, what luck I have that carnival season is about to start :-)

www.ich-liebt-du.de

It's complicated

A few weeks ago I finally got around to watching this film which was, if I remember right, fairly succesful in cinemas. It´s about a woman (Meryl Streep) which starts having an affair with her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) again while dating her archtitect (Steve Martin). It all gets complicated (who would have thought that after reading the title!?) and in the end the ex stays away and she starts a relationship with the architect...
As you can probably tell already, I wasn´t impressed with that. The film is more or less boring. They all live in such beautiful houses, have beautiful businesses and Meryl Streep is presented as the perfect woman - it´s dull. And to see Steve Martin in a non-funny role is utterly confusing (one of my favourite films of all times in "The Out-of-towners" with him being hilarious).
So all in all it´s not a bad film, especially not if you are a huge Meryl Streep fan, but nothing I would consider watching again.

www.thekitchendesigner.org

a walk down memory lane

 

When I visited a Body Shop again two weeks ago after a looong time I suddenly thought: I wonder if they still sell the vanilla body lotion that I loved that much when I was in school.
I had a look around to get used to the different designs and there it was. It still exists! And still smells as lovely as ever. Had to buy it again and now like to use a little bit of it every now and then on my wrists to enjoy the warm and somehow "safe" smell. Too powerful to use for the whole body (and too expensive for that too) but a nice little bottled memory...

Beth Ditto shoes

Another pair of lovely shoes I got in the sales two weeks ago. Came from Evans (yes, the plus size shop) and their Beth Ditto range (which makes it instantly cool, doesn't it!?).
I got them for a stunning 10£ instead of it's original prize of 45£. Love them as they have a retro feel about them and look as if just by wearing them I would time travel to the 20's...at least that fantasy is enough to made me fall for them ;-) They are comfortable, good-looking and as they are fairly wide I only needed a size 7, brilliant.

My life in ruins

Didn't know this film was existing but was expecting some light entertaining, nothing great but at least nice Greek landscape to look at.

The plot is simple: Georgia is an American history professor who moved to Greece where her ancestors came from. Here she only got the job as a tourguide and she hates the ignorant, annoying tourists. During one trip some incidents force her to change her mind and at the end she is in love - with the Greek busdriver and Greece itself.

I really enjoyed watching "My big fat Greek wedding" so I thought I give this one a try. I managed to watch it but it really amazed me what bad and lifeless films can be done. And how can Tom Hanks and his wife be the producers of shallow shit like that??

The characters are one-dimensional, Nia Vardalos has lost all her charm and loveliness, the plot is boring and oh so stereotypical and no scenic bits at all. I was shocked to see that the scenes in the bus were done so bad that you could actually see it was done in a studio with landscape added afterwards. I didn't think "effects" that bad could still be found in films from 2009.

So, a really bad film - no wonder I had never heard of it before.

http://s4.hubimg.com