Happy 2011!!!

My dear readers,

I wish you health, peace and lots of blessings in the New Year, and may we get to 'read each other' more and more... Have a wonderful celebration tonight!

Happy Hogmanay!!!

Favourites: September Through December

September

October

November

December

Favourites: May Through August

May

June

July

August


July definitely sports my favourite accessory - my brand new bike!

Favourites: January Through April

I got the idea for the monthly outfit recap from several style bloggers. I really liked it so I'm doing it as well, four months at a time in three consecutive posts. These are my favourite outfits from the first four months of 2010:

January

February

March

April

Can you pick a favourite?

Illuminated Music!

My Christmas present! Apart from some other bits & bobs I found wrapped under the Christmas tree. This was the best, though, it was exactly what I'd longed for!

I love Josh' music and I knew he'd just had a new CD out but what I didn't know was that between Noel and Illuminations he'd made another collection of his brilliant songs. I wasn't paying attention, apparently...

So, instead of one I got three CDs as there's a bonus one in his Collection! Lucky me! I'm off now to enjoy some music...

Merry Christmas...

... my dear blogging friends!

And may this holiday season fill your hearts with the peace of Christmas night!

Christmas Bazaar

Last week at my children's school. Both my boy and my little girl performed on stage as they both sing in the school choir. Together! It makes my heart melt when I see (and hear) them sing... It was a lovely performance and after that we could purchase some lovely Christmas decorations, hand-made by the school children. I couldn't resist, obviously. It was for a good cause, as well...

I got a lovely piece of hand-painted pottery - my little girl chose this particular bowl with white & silver decorations. Then I chose two pretty gift boxes - I can never resist any sort of polka dots... Can you?

Four Christmas tree decorations, one for each family member: the fairy is for my little girl (of course), the sugar cane is for my boy, Santa's boot for my husband, and I chose the red present for myself. So pretty!

I loved the wooden plaques as well. I might hang them on our tree, but then again I might not. There are so many places one can hang a Christmassy wooden plaque, aren't there?

Last but not least, two little creatures made of polymer clay, chosen by my children - the bumble bee for the girl and the penguin for the boy. Cute!

I love bazaars!

P.S.: The napkin was hand-embroidered by my Mum!

Only An Outfit Post

One of last week's outfits.

Another favourite, of course.

What can I say, I like the contents of my wardrobe...

I'm wearing:

- boots - Humanic
- tights - Polzela (local brand)
- skirt - Kesidov
- top - Zara (girls' range)
- vest - Miss Selfridge
- skinny leather belt - H&M
- cord jacket - Tom Tailor
- angel accessories

Off to make some more biscuits with my little girl!

Good Girl

I had a very productive afternoon. I made:

- vanilla crescents

- another batch of shortbread and...

- ... coconut kisses!

They're all delicious! More sorts to follow - hopefully tomorrow afternoon, after my little girl's ballet performance.

Sooo Pretty!!! - Part II.

OK, so I owe you an explanation of Friday's post. The gorgeous images are the work of my incredibly talented cousin, a children's book illustrator. She has produced a series of cards, lively and colourful, suitable for Christmas wishes, and also Valentine's Day, birthdays, anniversaries... the possibilities are endless (the exception is the image below which is entirely Christmassy). If interested, you can purchase the cards directly from her; I'm afraid at this point the offer is only available to Slovenian readers and if you're interested you can check my Facebook page where you will find contact information.

As I've said, my cousin is a brilliant artist and I'm happy to say that we have a joint project! To be honest, it's nothing new, really, it's just that I'm quite terrible at self-promotion. Anyway, we've published five children's books together (so far)! So, yay, I'm a published author!!! The books are really pretty (you can have a taste of the illustrations by checking my cousin's cards) and I'm extremely proud of them, but, as I've said, I'm not a seller, I just keep them at home and admire them... Well, I've spoken now so I'll have to present them on my blog at one point, right? I will, I promise. They're only available in Slovenian at this point but who knows... I'll keep saying: Stay tuned!

Sooo Pretty!!!

Aren't these absolutely gorgeous? Just a sneak peek for now! I'll tell you all about it in the next days.

Stay tuned!

Christmassy

Red & green always remind me of Christmas, particularly in winter. Sometimes I put them on deliberately, but every now and then it's a spur of the moment thingy. This outfit - from Tuesday - is the latter. Only when I saw the photo I realised I looked very much in a holiday mood. Red, green and a dash of pink. I attended the PTA meeting at the music school dressed like this. Very appropriate...

I'm wearing:

- boots - Humanic
- tights - NKD
- wrap skirt - Topshop
- cardi - Tulchan
- vest - local shop
- skinny belt - H&M
- roll-neck - get
- beret - Seeberger
- corsage - jysk
- angel accessories

Do you ever put together a Christmassy outfit?

I Love Tartan!

And I love my kilt! I've had it for years but again, as so many other items from my bursting wardrobe, it doesn't see the light of the day quite as often as desired. It comes in really handy though when it's freezing cold outside. And believe me, it's freezing cold outside these days in our part of the world.

I'm wearing:

- boots - Humanic
- kilt - Pringle of Scotland
- cardigan - Zara
- short-sleeve top - Mana
- long sleeve top - TwoWay
- skinny belt - H&M
- angel accessories

How are you handling the cold?

O Christmas Tree

More crafting done, yay! I made this lovely little felt Christmas tree last Sunday. I'd seen precious little trees with buttons on Etsy and then I remembered that my little girl had a set of these press-on glittery buttons stacked somewhere in her drawer. I kindly asked her permission to use some for my crafting and she obliged...

It came out rather well, don't you think? I don't want to sound too proud of myself but hey, I do like my tree! The next step will be having a mass production of these with my children. Let's see what happens. I'll keep you posted!

Lovely Brooch

Yesterday's outfit. I wasn't too sure whether it would look OK so I thought I'd just wait for the photo. I'm afraid I'm still not sure... I love the brooch, though!

I'm wearing:

- boots - Humanic
- tights - NKD
- knee-high socks - Burlington
- skirt - S.Oliver
- top - Zara (girls' range)
- cardigan - local shop
- leather belt - H&M
- brooch - birthday gift from friends - gorgeous!!!

How was your weekend?

Shortbread

Pre-Christmas biscuit-making season has begun, yay! You've already seen my oatmeal biscuits, they're yummy. Last night I made another batch and I also made some delicious shortbread. I looove shortbread. It oh so reminds me of my favourite place in the world, Scotland. I sometimes buy delicious Walker's shortbread but every December I make my own version.

I have this easy-peasy recipe from A Little Scottish Cookbook (The Appletree Press Ltd. 1988) and it works every time (I double the ingredients). The picture is from last year but it more or less looks pretty much the same every time I make it.

Shortbread

- 4 oz / 100 g / 1 cup plain flour
- 2 oz / 50 g / half cup rice flour
- 4 oz / 100 g / 1 cup butter
- 2 oz / 50 g / half cup caster sugar

Sieve the flour and rice flour. Add the sugar and butter and mix together until the mixture resembles the consistency of shortcrust pastry. Form into a square cake and cut into fingers. Pinch the edges and prick all over with a fork.

Bake in a a steady oven (gas mark 3, 325'F, 160'C) until beginning to colour, then lower the heat and bake fo a further 45 - 60 minutes.

Cool on grill pan tray.

Enjoy!

I Love Cupcakes!!!

I'm so excited!!! I participated in a lovely giveaway hosted by the wonderful S. from SimplyBike and guess what - I won!!! The prize is a bikebell from a Canadian company called dringdring - I get to choose my favourite design and, as you can well imagine, I've already done that! Ta-da!

I love reading S.'s blog, it's truly inspirational, and I also very much enjoy reading the blog she used to write on, academichic, which her friends continue to fill with all sorts of useful information on styling ideas and, most of all, great photos.

The choice for the prize was very difficult indeed - just look at all these scrumptious bells! In the end I decided for the green cupcake as green is my favourite colour and it will go well with all my bikes (sounds like I own far too many but I don't really - I have three, and I've already introduced the favourite one on this blog).

I'm really looking forward to bike-friendlier weather now!

Pictures courtesy of dringdring

Three Things

I haven't done this in a while. Three things that make me happy these days:

- a warm cup of delicious Vanilla & Caramel flavoured tea

- a pretty tin of home-made oatmeal biscuits

- two charming little Christmassy tea-light holders

Getting ready for the holidays, yay!

Bundled Up

Only the outdoors outfit today, the pic without the jacket didn't come out very well. I wasn't wearing anything spectacular anyway, a grey roll-neck and a brown herringbone vest. Despite its non-spectacularness I'm sure I'll wear it again and post about it then.

So, here goes:

- boots - Humanic
- knee-high socks - Burlington
- tights - NKD
- skirt - Boden
- jacket - H&M
- scarf - Kokoska (local boutique brand)
- beret - Seeberger
- corsage - Accessorize
- handwarmers - Etsy (Crafts2Cherish)
- leather bag - Zara
- wreath on the door - self-made!

Keeping Warm

Today's outfit. Warm and presentable, stylish enough for the PT meeting at school. And the choir practice in the evening.

I'm wearing:

- these boots
- cords - White Sea
- sweater dress - local shop
- skinny belt - H&M
- shirt - Playlife
- silk scarf - Laura Ashley (old!)
- angel accessories
- grey hair roots!