Some dogs have all the luck...
Friday, 8 April 2011
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Sprüche, thoughts and pensées
" I´m living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart." E.E.Cummings
"The important thing is to take your time and not get stressed." Diane von Fürstenberg
"Change is the only evidence of life." Evelyn Waugh
"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." André Gide
"Style is a simple way of saying complicated things." Jean Cocteau
"The important thing is to take your time and not get stressed." Diane von Fürstenberg
"Change is the only evidence of life." Evelyn Waugh
"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." André Gide
"Style is a simple way of saying complicated things." Jean Cocteau
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Shoes...
Women and shoes - the despair of men, as it seems. Well, they have other problems. In fact, if a man buys a really good pair of shoes and takes good care of it, it may last him well some 30 years. I speak of Aldens, Church´s etc.etc. Handmade shoes for the gentleman are widely envied, I understand. A powerful sign that "you´ve made it".
We knew it: Life is not fair after all. If a woman runs around in perfectly maintained shoes for 30 years it might be a problem. Or you start to become a style icon yourself. Even the great Diana Vreeland - wearing always the same model of custom-made black shoes - had them substituted regularly for a new pair and did indeed change her style of shoes slightly during the whole of her life. So..
We women do have another approach - we love shoes. Basta. We need shoes.
To be able to buy a pair of really great shoes, let´s say, perhaps the ultimate Manolo Blahniks or some latest newest Roger Vivier´s comes near the feeling of "having made it". But not only: to have a really great pair of shoes on those poor old feet is some sort of a Cinderella moment, just only that you don´t become a pumpkin after taking them off. You step out of one personality, throwing the high heels from your feet and getting in a pair of walking shoes. We all have different aspects of ourselves and different situations in life require very simply different pairs of shoes - that might be a reasonable explanation, why women need more than just "shoes for walking, keeping warm and feel comfortable in"?
And one thing more: shoes have the big advantage that the weight issue does not really impede the aquisition of a wonderful pair of shoes and therefore provide a sudden miracle in the self-estimation. Lovely, difficult word. But you all know what I mean. Allthough I hasten to say, that a great pair in size 41 is more difficult to find than let´s face it, 38. (Sadly the same goes for clothes...)
I love shoes, as I said already, and I am in good company. I know.
One wonders though about the uncomfortability women inflict upon themselves in walking around in 10 inch stilettos. I just can´t imagine, that this makes one feel better, great or especially chic. At least I am not capable of surviving a day running around in high heels, perhaps a genetically inflicted fault in my perception of feeling well.
It just hurts and the way the lady walks is not attractive - in my view.
I ask myself soemtimes, if someone who adores women on breathtakingly high heels is not otherwise someone who would be afraid that the object of desire (i.e.the girl) might run away if wearing a pair of "normal" shoes. So, difficult connotations between sex and shoes....
Perhaps shoes do give us, deep deep down in our subconsciouness, the illusion, that we really are in control, can really dash off, if we want to? "Walk out" on something or someone, "take a step" to somewhere? At least do it in style and not in trainers.
We knew it: Life is not fair after all. If a woman runs around in perfectly maintained shoes for 30 years it might be a problem. Or you start to become a style icon yourself. Even the great Diana Vreeland - wearing always the same model of custom-made black shoes - had them substituted regularly for a new pair and did indeed change her style of shoes slightly during the whole of her life. So..
We women do have another approach - we love shoes. Basta. We need shoes.
To be able to buy a pair of really great shoes, let´s say, perhaps the ultimate Manolo Blahniks or some latest newest Roger Vivier´s comes near the feeling of "having made it". But not only: to have a really great pair of shoes on those poor old feet is some sort of a Cinderella moment, just only that you don´t become a pumpkin after taking them off. You step out of one personality, throwing the high heels from your feet and getting in a pair of walking shoes. We all have different aspects of ourselves and different situations in life require very simply different pairs of shoes - that might be a reasonable explanation, why women need more than just "shoes for walking, keeping warm and feel comfortable in"?
And one thing more: shoes have the big advantage that the weight issue does not really impede the aquisition of a wonderful pair of shoes and therefore provide a sudden miracle in the self-estimation. Lovely, difficult word. But you all know what I mean. Allthough I hasten to say, that a great pair in size 41 is more difficult to find than let´s face it, 38. (Sadly the same goes for clothes...)
I love shoes, as I said already, and I am in good company. I know.
One wonders though about the uncomfortability women inflict upon themselves in walking around in 10 inch stilettos. I just can´t imagine, that this makes one feel better, great or especially chic. At least I am not capable of surviving a day running around in high heels, perhaps a genetically inflicted fault in my perception of feeling well.
It just hurts and the way the lady walks is not attractive - in my view.
I ask myself soemtimes, if someone who adores women on breathtakingly high heels is not otherwise someone who would be afraid that the object of desire (i.e.the girl) might run away if wearing a pair of "normal" shoes. So, difficult connotations between sex and shoes....
Perhaps shoes do give us, deep deep down in our subconsciouness, the illusion, that we really are in control, can really dash off, if we want to? "Walk out" on something or someone, "take a step" to somewhere? At least do it in style and not in trainers.
Monday, 4 April 2011
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Handbag Dilemma
This is a dilemma - not a really real one, but a dilemma after all: I have to think about it and cannot just move on, doing other, more interesting and urgent things.
I need a new handbag. For the summer; one, which goes with everything (though not for evenings, bien-sure). It should be at ease with a wardrobe in light grey, white, terracotta, some little blue, a lovely olive green and quite a lot if browns, camel and cinnamon. And a bit of black. And white/grey hair. Green/brown eyes.
So, you see, not easy....
For the last weeks, the dilemma has been getting even bigger: My budget and my ideas do live in different space galaxies. At least on the first and second look. I have done some real soul/wardrobe searching and walked around with my eyes wide open in this city of Brussels. Up to now, very diffcult, not really successful.
What do I need? I need a bag with handles - my beautiful slopping Biedermeier Shoulders do not support a bag which hangs on your shoulder. I look like the hunchback of Notre Dame and get definite pain in my back. I need a bag with handles, like the Queen.
Good models: Birkin Bag and some very nice things done by Celine. I immediatedly refer here to the budget dilemma.
I have the form. Now: Which Colour?
I have had for years and years always a summer bag in a "tan" - going very well with white, browns, terracotta and grey. But I feel, that I have to move on - thinking right now about some grey or beige handbag..... But this could be dangerous, I could look within a minute dowdy and frumpy and just "passée".
Perhaps in Patent leather? Bearable, but not really for me, and not easy to pull of. And not really a classic for the next years to come up. I am not rich enough to buy several bags in the next years. So, be clever and buy well.
I have the shoes to consider as well. All the magazines tell us this season, that putting shoes and bags together is boring. Last season it was still ok, if I remember my english Vogue right. I still think it makes my life easier and looks pulled together. The only NO-NO: A white bag with white shoes looks defintively like a first communion outfit, so don´t go near this.
And then, who wants to change every day his handbag? I search for one and for all, going through the summer with me..
A red handbag, you will say! I have one, but in a cherry red, which I love, an old model by " Le Tanneur", of the times when they were not yet back on the market, being revamped. A very nice and good structured bag, then very affordable and still much beloved. It will come out in october to see the autumn season again and go with my black coat and boots. No dark red bag for summer for me.
For the last 20 years I have bought and rebought the classic tote bag made by "Longchamp" - great quality there was to be got for a great price.
But in the last years they have also started to vamp the label up, and out go the structured bags, in comes Kate Moss and the zippers and embellishments, which gives me no desire to possess these bags any more. Also, the quality of the interior has dramatically got worse.
I want a plain, good leather bag, well executed, with preferably a nice interior, affordable, discret, elegant, a bit special all the same and a workhorse to be relied on. I know, this is impossible...
Next week I will be for a day in Paris and will have a close look there. Perhaps I am lucky and some bag simply sits there and waits for me - and I will recognize it the moment I see it. But then, with my genetic ability to always fall instinctively for the most expensive thing in the room, I am doomed from the beginning.
Another problem is still this colour question - greige, beige, grey? Or simply, again good old tan? Dark grey? (Looks good with white, though..) - Any ideas? Any place in Paris to be recommended for the handbagsearcher?
Well. I could also start seriously to save for that Birkin thing, for my 70th birthday. There would be some time still to consider the colour and change my mind. But then, I will have to live for the next ... years out of my already existing handbag collection. And that is not a nice, not a really elevating thought.
I could go on to bore you with the bags I have collected over the years, why, where and when - make even pictures of them and then ask my readers to vote for the "Existing Bag of 2011". But I will do it only, if you ask me to do.
I need a new handbag. For the summer; one, which goes with everything (though not for evenings, bien-sure). It should be at ease with a wardrobe in light grey, white, terracotta, some little blue, a lovely olive green and quite a lot if browns, camel and cinnamon. And a bit of black. And white/grey hair. Green/brown eyes.
So, you see, not easy....
For the last weeks, the dilemma has been getting even bigger: My budget and my ideas do live in different space galaxies. At least on the first and second look. I have done some real soul/wardrobe searching and walked around with my eyes wide open in this city of Brussels. Up to now, very diffcult, not really successful.
What do I need? I need a bag with handles - my beautiful slopping Biedermeier Shoulders do not support a bag which hangs on your shoulder. I look like the hunchback of Notre Dame and get definite pain in my back. I need a bag with handles, like the Queen.
Good models: Birkin Bag and some very nice things done by Celine. I immediatedly refer here to the budget dilemma.
I have the form. Now: Which Colour?
I have had for years and years always a summer bag in a "tan" - going very well with white, browns, terracotta and grey. But I feel, that I have to move on - thinking right now about some grey or beige handbag..... But this could be dangerous, I could look within a minute dowdy and frumpy and just "passée".
Perhaps in Patent leather? Bearable, but not really for me, and not easy to pull of. And not really a classic for the next years to come up. I am not rich enough to buy several bags in the next years. So, be clever and buy well.
I have the shoes to consider as well. All the magazines tell us this season, that putting shoes and bags together is boring. Last season it was still ok, if I remember my english Vogue right. I still think it makes my life easier and looks pulled together. The only NO-NO: A white bag with white shoes looks defintively like a first communion outfit, so don´t go near this.
And then, who wants to change every day his handbag? I search for one and for all, going through the summer with me..
A red handbag, you will say! I have one, but in a cherry red, which I love, an old model by " Le Tanneur", of the times when they were not yet back on the market, being revamped. A very nice and good structured bag, then very affordable and still much beloved. It will come out in october to see the autumn season again and go with my black coat and boots. No dark red bag for summer for me.
For the last 20 years I have bought and rebought the classic tote bag made by "Longchamp" - great quality there was to be got for a great price.
But in the last years they have also started to vamp the label up, and out go the structured bags, in comes Kate Moss and the zippers and embellishments, which gives me no desire to possess these bags any more. Also, the quality of the interior has dramatically got worse.
I want a plain, good leather bag, well executed, with preferably a nice interior, affordable, discret, elegant, a bit special all the same and a workhorse to be relied on. I know, this is impossible...
Next week I will be for a day in Paris and will have a close look there. Perhaps I am lucky and some bag simply sits there and waits for me - and I will recognize it the moment I see it. But then, with my genetic ability to always fall instinctively for the most expensive thing in the room, I am doomed from the beginning.
Another problem is still this colour question - greige, beige, grey? Or simply, again good old tan? Dark grey? (Looks good with white, though..) - Any ideas? Any place in Paris to be recommended for the handbagsearcher?
Well. I could also start seriously to save for that Birkin thing, for my 70th birthday. There would be some time still to consider the colour and change my mind. But then, I will have to live for the next ... years out of my already existing handbag collection. And that is not a nice, not a really elevating thought.
I could go on to bore you with the bags I have collected over the years, why, where and when - make even pictures of them and then ask my readers to vote for the "Existing Bag of 2011". But I will do it only, if you ask me to do.
Friday, 1 April 2011
My Favourite English Cookbooks
Forget Nigella. After her latest book, she´s out: it is only a compilation of her recipies taken out of her former books and meddled with a bit. I have read all her books and have cooked some of her food, nice, but then not really mindblowing. And I do not like to get served the same aahs and oohs 54 times again and again.
My children can´t stand her any more - and they are avid viewers of "The Great British Menu" - we all sit religiously every day in front of the telly and watch this 30 minutes - already in our 3rd season.We have favourites and we can judge. Can´t wait, that it starts again - now, in April? Will have to look it up. I even dare to come 5 minutes late for the choir rehearsals in April and May....
As I have already promised, I will be kind and share with you my really really favourite cookbooks - this time the english ones - basically there are three authors and their works. Sorry to say, that they are all women: Anna del Conte, Elizabeth David and Diana Henry.
But this woman thing is pure coincidence. What all three of them have in common is this:
Elizabeth David I discovered in a turkish bookshop in Ankara, 10 years ago, in a box with used old books. It was "A Book of Mediterranean Food" and I enjoyed it so much, that I in time got all her books and have read all of them. I have even read her biography, "Writing at the Kitchen Table" - what an interesting character and what an adventuress she was. What I adore in reading her, is her ability to chat to you - never being pedantic, never tell you what to do, always suggesting and never being too precise on the ingredients - this is possible, and that. No difficult measurements and no fuss. And she loves wine. What else do I need?
Recently there is a compilation of "Her very best everyday recipes" under the title "At Elizabeth David´s Table" - have a look at it, the photographs are delightful and of course, it is again a Penguin Book.
Anna del Conte is italian but has been living in England for most of her life. She writes with so much heart about her memories and love of italian food, that you want to hug her. This is for me the ultimate italian cookbook: "Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes, The Best of Anna del Conte" - alone the title is a hit. No pictures here to wet your appetite, but it is so well written, you learn so much, that it is one of my favourites by far. Cosy and lovable, delicious, most inviting and never ever boring. A great italian Mama.
The youngest of those three Ladies is Diana Henry. The first book I bought from her was a wintery cookbook - "Roast figs sugar snow - food to warm the soul" - and this is exactly what you get. I ordered it simply because the cover was so beautiful - and what a nice surprise it was!! Her cooking is again not haute cuisine, but feasable good food, looking good and tasting even better. I then bought "Cook Simple" and there is a new one, which I have not yet studied, called "Food from Plenty". She is different from the others, as she marries very different sources together - food from Georgia, from the old Austrian Empire, very european indeed, very relaxed.
Good food should be no stress, but a joy. This is a manifesto that more people should write behind their ears...
My children can´t stand her any more - and they are avid viewers of "The Great British Menu" - we all sit religiously every day in front of the telly and watch this 30 minutes - already in our 3rd season.We have favourites and we can judge. Can´t wait, that it starts again - now, in April? Will have to look it up. I even dare to come 5 minutes late for the choir rehearsals in April and May....
As I have already promised, I will be kind and share with you my really really favourite cookbooks - this time the english ones - basically there are three authors and their works. Sorry to say, that they are all women: Anna del Conte, Elizabeth David and Diana Henry.
But this woman thing is pure coincidence. What all three of them have in common is this:
- recipes are simple, never a too difficult ingredient, no need to weigh 12,7 grams of those rare chinese mushrooms you get only in a special market in New York. Here, things are what they are and mostly not too many ingredients are needed.
- all three of them are a tremendous read - best of all, of course, Elizabeth David. I am happy with a cookbook on my lap instead of a newspaper on a lazy saturday morning. Not so many dead people and catastrophies...
- the pictures are lovely and so appetizing, that you would like to throw yourself in your kitchen, put this sleeves up and and get going this instant
- the food is simple, clear, appetizing and do-able, even for such a terribly lazy cook like me.
- the food looks truly beautiful - important for me in any case: it makes want to eat it all!
- no TV shows, not celebrity humdrum about those three ladies - long live the understated professional.
Recently there is a compilation of "Her very best everyday recipes" under the title "At Elizabeth David´s Table" - have a look at it, the photographs are delightful and of course, it is again a Penguin Book.
Anna del Conte is italian but has been living in England for most of her life. She writes with so much heart about her memories and love of italian food, that you want to hug her. This is for me the ultimate italian cookbook: "Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes, The Best of Anna del Conte" - alone the title is a hit. No pictures here to wet your appetite, but it is so well written, you learn so much, that it is one of my favourites by far. Cosy and lovable, delicious, most inviting and never ever boring. A great italian Mama.
The youngest of those three Ladies is Diana Henry. The first book I bought from her was a wintery cookbook - "Roast figs sugar snow - food to warm the soul" - and this is exactly what you get. I ordered it simply because the cover was so beautiful - and what a nice surprise it was!! Her cooking is again not haute cuisine, but feasable good food, looking good and tasting even better. I then bought "Cook Simple" and there is a new one, which I have not yet studied, called "Food from Plenty". She is different from the others, as she marries very different sources together - food from Georgia, from the old Austrian Empire, very european indeed, very relaxed.
Good food should be no stress, but a joy. This is a manifesto that more people should write behind their ears...
Sprüche, thoughts and pensées
"I don´t believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one´s aspect of sun." Virginia Woolf
" Be yourself, no matter what they say." Sting
"Glück scheint zum Teilen geschaffen zu sein." Jean Racine
"Zest is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty that is attractive without zest." Christian Dior
"I tell the truth, as much as I dare - and as I grow older I dare a little more." Michel de Montaigne
"Big girls need big diamonds." Elizabeth Taylor
"Je älter der Freund, umso besser." Plautus
"Eine gute Tat ist immer eine Unvorsichtigkeit" A.
" Be yourself, no matter what they say." Sting
"Glück scheint zum Teilen geschaffen zu sein." Jean Racine
"Zest is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty that is attractive without zest." Christian Dior
"I tell the truth, as much as I dare - and as I grow older I dare a little more." Michel de Montaigne
"Big girls need big diamonds." Elizabeth Taylor
"Je älter der Freund, umso besser." Plautus
"Eine gute Tat ist immer eine Unvorsichtigkeit" A.
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