THE item of the season

OK, I admit it. The sales have begun, so when I went down into town to pick up my mail, last Wednesday, I thought I'd go have a look. Because it was early, the weather was nice and I wanted to be in a crowd, or atleast on a busy street, full of life and bussle. Also I just didn't want to be underground all the way back home.

So I went into Mango. It was buzzing! A queue almost as long as the store of women with several items in their hands. NOT the kind vista that usually tempts me to shop.

Because I had no intention of shopping, just browsing, this didn't deter me. So I walked around, checking the discounts - clue #1 about how the S/S 2010 season had gone in retail: Mostly 60 and 70% off which is far from the norm in Spain for the first week of sales. Proof of just how bad the season has been for everyone.

Despite the queue at the cashiers, there was no queue to try things on. Clue #2 to this season: more people than usual came in before the sales, tried things on, and prepared their wish list for the sales. Like that they didn't have to "waste their time" trying on come the sale.

Picked up a few items I hadn't seen before and try them on. Including a design from the last Mango talent competition winner - just because I was curious about the cut, and it wasn't very clear what it'd look like.

So now I have a camera...

Yesterday I hopped on a bus, all excited. The sun was burning down on me, but, behind my silk patterned hat, I really didn't mind. I was on my way to the post office, to pick up my new digital camera!!!!

Its so small and light, and its a beautiful bright red! I am so excited!!! Its going to be fun taking it around with me. Now I just have to get hold of a memory card -I have one somewhere among the things I've been able to move in with me but haven't found it yet.

Now, you must wonder how I got hold of this, considering my "minimum consumption" mantra of late. Well, by eating yogurts.

Yup. You read right.

Yogurts.

Just had to sign up and sign in all the codes of every yogurt I ate / drank. And, with alot of help from my parents, I managed to accumulate enough points to get this little beauty by Samsung. Now we continue with the intent of surprising my nephew with something fun when he comes. Just hope we get the points we need before its all sold out!

Eye opener

Now I think I've already mentioned that one of my favourite natural and ecological beauty brands is Greek brand Korres. But I don't think I've mentioned any specific products. Well I am now.

Because since I began using their Mastiha & Jojoba eye cream about three months ago its managed to make my eyes look young and worry free, even as the rest of me continues to show the signs of restless nights, anxiety and, well, yes, age. The crows feet are kept at bay and the black circles water down to a more attractive Twilight kind of smokey gray. Its one of those things that keeps my spirits up day after day.

So sometimes beauty can come in a pot ;-)

Too much packaging

Can someone please explain to me why a glue stick comes packed in a B5 size moulded plastic envelope, that also includes a B5 sized piece of cardboard with more or less the same instructions that already figure on the glue stick's plastic coating?

It seems crazy to me that a product that costs me 2.50 € - by the way WHEN did glue sticks become so expensive?! - has soo much added, and useless, packaging to its name. This small example makes me wonder when we became OK with so much needless waste of materials. Before taking it to the check out counter I looked over all the other products around - pens, rulers, post its... all came with this kind of XL packaging. Only the notebooks seemed completely packaging free, or just covered in film plastic. Now, this is just an idea but - can't they start reducing the amount of packaging around stationary? Why does the packaging of a pen have to be 5x bigger than the pen itself?

It doesn't make sense to have all that extra weight or for it to take up all that extra space. Just think about shopping for a new school year! You get home with all the products in your check list and end up recycling bag fulls of packaging that it all came in. Not good.

One by one

Remember how I said I'd be "taking on" my sample sizes? Well, I'm hard at work on it, and, one by one, reducing the amount of tubes, bottles and other things in my new bathroom. All end up in the recycling bin.

Before the move I had finished off a few The Body Shop products in order to go leave the bottles in their recycling programme. Well it turns out they've stopped that programme now, because most of their clients now recycle daily and so they feel there is no more need to stimulate that action. Which is great news, because it means that people have really incorporated recycling into their everyday life.

Better leave you now, got to go take a bubble bath, exfoliate and try a new perfume. Ahhh! The joys of sampling the good life...

Job title: Ethical Living Correspondent

Just saw this job title in an article about The Observer's Ethical Awards 2010. It belongs to Lucy Siegle, The Observer's Ethical Living Correspondent. Sounds good doesn't it? I imagine this woman dealing with all kinds of stories from the viewpoint of sustainability, good production practices, respect for human and civil rights... exciting stuff!! Ispiring job title. Would love to earn that kind of a title for myself.

A house of one's own

Last week, in the midst of running about doing paperwork and getting used to new bus and tube routes and their time tables, suddenly I had an hour with nothing to do. As I was in my old hood I decided to use that hour to go see an exhibition at the Fundación Canal (www.fundacioncanal.com) about contemporary sustainable architecture. Going to see it was the best idea I had all week!

The vision of twelve architects and studios involved was terribly stimulating and filled me with optimism for the future. Its not only that great minds are going "back to basics" and returning to ancient knowledge about using the natural flow of air, instead of airconditioning, to stabilize temperatures (something I've done in all my aircondition-free apartments to great success). Its that they are looking at old techniques in new ways. Think of the Roman's excellent use of hot water to heat their houses via an underground system, and transpose that to the 21st century with all its technological advances.

From the breathtaking garden covered buildings imagined by Emilio Ambasz, to Mario Cucinella's waterfront living complex 100K, their proposals sweep aside so much of what we see around us, after these decades of mindless building. Of all those on display I have only actually visited one of them. Barajas's Terminal 4, as created by Antonio Lamela. But maybe the most seductive from a purely sensual perspective is Richard Rodger's undulating wooden ceilings for the Wales National Assembly in Cardiff. Hair raising.

In another order of things is Norman Foster's (or should I say Sir Norman's?) work. Beginning with the Free University in Berlin. The sinewy contours of the library are an open invitation to study. From the looks of it, its cozy, almost womblike, and full of light. And then there is the scale, the sheer ambition of his Abu Dhabi project: Masdar City. Wonder what that CO2 free city will really end up looking like and how its inhabitants will interact with it.

On a much more personal scale, I'd choose one of David Kirkland's proposals for my own. His Headlands House is rich in curves and unexpected volumes that are flooded with natural light. It looks welcoming and well thought out for everyday living. And I really enjoy the "home spun" angle he has added by counting on local materials and craftsmen for its different components. If I could choose that would definitely be the kind of home I'd like to call my own.

Madrid in Love

Now, as you've probably noticed, this blog is not really about shopping, or even the best fashion tips. But I do have to make an exception with a pop up store I visited with a friend of mine this Monday. It was only open for a long weekend, starting Friday, but by the time we got there it was almost entirely sold out. Did I mention it was an interior decoration store? And that most pieces where pretty big?

But the selection was so delicious, that I wasn't too surprised to see "VENDIDO" clearly marked on about 90% of the labels. The mood was romantic and feminine, without being cloying. Rural vintage in a luminous, Aix-en-Provence kind of way which made you forget the roaring traffic just outside the door and almost smell the lavander fields and hear the humming of the bees and the crickets.

Needless to say, I too, fell in love.

The well chosen selection of pieces made of natural woods and the patina of time drew me in like a jar of honey does Winnie Pooh. Suddenly I was in a light filled home, with a glorious garden full of colourful flowers, sitting at a potter's wheel (there actually was one on display) and humming to myself while creating the type of ceramics that would make a Japanese "living treasure" of a master proud.

Few shops have that transporting effect.

So bravo to the group of friends who mounted this!!! And PLEASE!!! keep doing it every so often until I get back on my feet (financially speaking) so I too, can add the red word to one of your labels and take a little bit of that magic home with me.

Good question

This question, cut out from an article in a magazine, way back in the day, is the fashion equivalent to Hamlet's "To be or not to be. That, is the question."

Found it again as I organize my things in my new room and thought it was a good starting point for a post (and a pause). Think that, more often than not, we dress to combine both "blending in" and "standing out". The whole "office appropriate" or "occasion appropriate" debate is all about finding the right balance between these, or, if you prefer, "standing out" for all the right reasons, as opposed to all the wrong reasons.

The "blending in" you do to show conformity, to express that you belong to a certain group or entity, so that others can identify you as "one of them". Sometimes you don't really "belong" but are desperately trying to fit in - queue the superabundance of logos, it bags, "must have" mobiles, and a long etc. of parafernalia marketed as the ultimate key to finally get passed that unforgiving velvet rope that limits the access to VIPdom (whatever your idea of VIPdom may be).

So where does the individuality of the "standing out" come in? Well, let me make a flashback to the angsty teenage comedy that was "16 candles"... that's where the "standing out" comes in. Because most people have, at some point or other in their lives, felt like an ugly duckling. And at some point they have decided that instead of feeling bad about it or letting others use that difference as a hurtful weapon, they would turn the tables and use that difference as a way of vindicating that yes, they were different and extremely proud of being so. That they had no desire or need to be cookie cutter "in"...

All that simplification of "in" and "out" never really sat well with me. Call me a relativist if you will, but I always saw those supposed boundries as shifting sands that where best ignored. Not that I have never been hyperaware and worried sick about the messages my wardrobe, look, choice of accessories or brands might be conveying. Unfortunately such insecurities raise their ugly heads more often than I'd like (especially when trying to decide what to wear to my first Milan and Paris fashion week without busting my budget back in 2004/5!) That really was a nightmare!!! Becoming hyperconcious of all that an outfit can signal, especially among fashion cognoscenti, was enough to leave anyone feeling inappropriate, insecure, fat, ugly and totally out of it.

Those days are luckily in the past and today I am more levelheaded about it. Its not that I manage to strike the right balance everytime, but that I have become more forgiving. The day / the mood / the body / the wardrobe options at hand ... it is what it is and there are so many more important things to worry about.

Always be respectful of what you will be doing / where you will be going / who you will be seeing, and you should be fine. But please, also, remember to always enjoy dressing up and the greatest secret of them all: feel comfortable in what you wear. For, if you do that, you will stand out and shine for all the right reasons.