My new leopard-style bag and white shoes

I thought I'd treat myself with something for surviving my first few weeks of London working life... I love leopard-style stuff (not only since that became fashionable this season!), so I went all crazy when I saw this bag at River Island.
And when I thought it can't get any better, I spotted these white, black-dotted shoes! Hurray...

Oh, please excuse the background... That would be my humble attempts to create some stylish pictures...

My brother's post - Christmas Dinner / Lunch

Today I had a proud sister moment... My brother is only 22 and already a considerably gifted chef well versed in all kinds of cuisines. He recently moved in with his girlfriend and invited the entire family for some post-Christmas lunch / dinner thingy... Delicious food - and an incredibly nicely decorated table:

Considering they just moved in and half of their stuff is still tucked away in boxes, that table is indeed sensational...

Yummy! He served some Asian-style chicken & soja dish with lots of veggies and rice (don't ask me any details of the veggies on that plate - there was all sorts of stuff). Delicious :-)

My father had a moment and sponsored some expensive champagne... To celebrate in style :-)

My Morocco Trip to some Guru to help me find a boyfriend

I'm done with match.com, single-parties and friends-introducing-someone-thingy, so I decided to turn to the occult and went to Morocco to visit a Guru... What I got? Two bottles of allegedly enchanted water, lots of herbs and a special ring to wear... I'll let you know if my romantic encounters suddenly accelerate..
Read about my journey to Morocco and my visit to that Guru here.

Here are some pictures I took - Morocco really IS beautiful:

                                         
                                                 Fancy a smoke? Moroccan - style Shisha

                                                            Camels all over the place...

                                                                 
                                                                       Beach in Agadir

                                       Moroccan Architecture - here a building in Marrakech

                  Moroccan people love spices and herbs... in supermarkets you get them in bulks...

                                         View of Agadir - typical Moroccan.-style houses...

                         The ordinary living room in Morocco - a hint of Arabian style. I love it!

Christmas for the cats... Miaow...!

My mother is a cat-maniac and completely and absolutely all over her three little cats... As this would be their very Christmas, I brought for her these 3 cute stockings from Harrods. I'm not sure if they were 'good cats' though. In any case, my mother was a super-happy bunny and immediately created a Christmas - wall dedicated to her 3 little babies:

Christmas has just begun... My favourite Christmas Decorations...

I loooove Christmas. Every year I can't wait for december to arrive... That christmas frenzy combined with my obsession with cheesy, trashy decoration-thingy can only result in the ultimate bling bling x-mas bonanza.

This year, however, I tried to get a grip on myself and decided to go for more grown-up, but no lesser cute stuff... What do you think?

Trashy? Naaaah, I just think it's cute... In that little bowl on top of the gingerbread-men one of them little flat candles can be put...

That christmassy item can be found in my parent's flat. My mother shares my devotion to anything trashy, glossy and shiny. This year she saw this Santa with sleigh and reindeers in some shop and just couldn't hold herself...

Candles are one of my many addictions... I'm a big fan of 'Yankee Candles'. This december, I invested and got 2 of these gigantic Christmas edition ones... The green one would be some a balsam and cedar scent (whatever that combination's supposed to be...) and the red one would be 'red apple wreath'. I adore both scents, but my favourite would be that tiny white one: 'Christmas Cupcake'!!

Christmas cookie boxes and a matching decoration plate... Including the obligatory reindeer and Santa Claus drawings...

That one's supposed to be a picture frame, but I think that jolly Santa with his list is pictoresque enough...

Hyde Park Winterwonderland - Christmas has begun!

Since I moved to London, the opening of the Winterwonderland in Hyde Park marks the beginning of Christmas - at least for me :-) Mulled wine, a Santa Claus grotto, gingerbread and mince pies... Yes please... But beware: I recommend to save up a considerable amount of money before you decide to go there, things (mulled wine!!) are quite expensive there...

Coming en route from Oxford Street and Marble Arch, that's the first thing you get to see...

Not only for children: Santaland... I love it. Although most of the rides are too small to fit in half my butt, I like walking throught that part of Winterwonderland...

Yes please! I love mulled wine... But coming from Austria, I know that mulled wine is quite different in Britain than anywhere else.. It's basically what is says it is: hot wine... No extra spices, no additional flavours, no fruits inside... So for 4 pounds (!!) you get a tiny plastic cup with a bit boiled red wine... Anyways, have one and decide for yourself :-)

If you don't go for mulled wine, you might want to try one of these: lots of christmassy sweets and old-style gingerbread hearts...

In the middle of the whole Winterwonderland would be an ice skating rank. But most of the time it's really busy there and you need to book in advance to get to skate a bit.

Santa's Pub.. Jolly good, book me in!

The Winterwonderland in Hyde Park usually opens in late November and closes somewhen around the first week of January.

1st of december... Christmas begins!!!

Hurray - 1st of december!! I know in the UK 'advent' and the old custom of having some advent wreath to light the candles on all 4 sundays leading up to Christmas Eve doesn't seem to be popular... I hardly saw any advent wreaths in London... Luckily my mother got one :-) The traditional custom goes like this: on the first Sunday 4 weeks before Christmas Eve you light the first candle, on the next sunday you light 2 candles, the 3rd sunday before Christmas 3 candles... You get the idea... So on the 4th Sunday and Christmas Eve, all 4 candles should be lighted :-)

New red scarf... Red, skulls, animal footprints

Am I too old for skulls and animal footprints? Particularly if both are on one and the same item? Well... I'm a social media manager - I need to give people what they expect. And that won't be some black suit with a brown handbag and a white scarf.

So I decided to join in the fun...Red, skulls, animal footprints:

Little wooden plane - old-style, but still cute...

My brother already engaged in some early Christmas shopping to get it over and done with... He found this cute little wooden plane for my father. My father loves everything and anything flying - I bet he will be over the moon :-D

Cutting-edge cutting board :-)

Just acquired this ultra-cool cutting board for my brother. He's still 22 years young, but already a little Michelin-Wannabie cook. I love the design... Unfortunately I had one of my bad-camera moments when I took the picture, but here we go:

Space-Girls all the way...

Just seen this jumpsuit (at River Island)... I guess the only activity justifying a glossy jumpsuit in metallic colours would be a perm contract with the NASA.

Chinese Fans

I adore Chinese Fans - I've got 2 big ones in my room. I love the various exotic drawings on them. I got both in a small Chinese shop in Southampton...

This is a particularly large on and it covers half of one of my walls in my room. In basic terms, it shows a bit of a landscape with birds, flowers and a river.

The colour red together with the colour gold is supposed to be a very lucky combination and very auspicious for finance (I read that in 3 different Feng Shui books, so there should be at least a hint of truth in it).

Shot Glasses - for special drinks and thirsty guests

Naaah - I'm not advocating too much alcohol here, but I really do love these cute & colourful shot glasses:

Native American - Style shoes...

These ones remind me of some Winnetou-style sandals out there in Native America. I'm not sure if they're suitable for an urban environment though... But I definitely love the feathers and decorations...

Seen at: Office

Chinese Lucky Symbols and Home Accessories

I have a fancy for Chinese home accessories - particularly if they're supposed to bring luck :-) In London's Soho I frequently find Chinese lucky items or just pretty amazing decorations:

I gave these to my mother in the hope it would bring her luck... The shop assistant made a point in extensively explaining how lucky these little items are: Buddha is always supposed to be a very auspicious symbol, the round thingy on the right one resemble coins which obviously are beneficial for finance, the knitted knots on top are supposed to be 'lucky knots' and anyways, red in itself should be a lucky as well...

I've got this one in my room. Again, we've got our 'lucky knot' (and here even two of them), and the pattern in the middle would be made out of amber elements (with amber being a lucky stone, apparantly) and, uhm, plastic I guess... The vital thing, however, would be the red drawing on that amber / plastic pattern: a dragon. And dragons are supposed to be extremely powerful symbols for luck, power and weatlh (this one I got from a book, not some shop assistant...).

These balls (well, they're supposed to resemble lanterns) are hung up during New Year to ensure a lucky and nice year. They are always red (lucky colour!) and are often embroidered with Chinese letters or other lucky symbols. In London's China Town, the whole place is plastered with these lanterns during New Year (and remember: Chinese people normally celebrate Chinese New Year somewhere in January / February. In 2012, the Chinese New Year would be on January 23rd) and I've got on of these in my room on a permanent basis - just to be sure I get as much luck as possible...

Old-style picture frames

I'm no fan of futuristic, modern and terribly understated home accessories. I want them pompous with grand ornaments, cheese colours and expensive-loooking (no matter how cheap they are). That's why I love these old-style picture frames:

Seen at: Next Home

Animal-style rings...

Right now, funny rings sporting animal patterns are to be seen everywhere. I'm not sure if I fancy to wear a tiger's head on my right ringfinger,but then again I'm too young not to fashionable...

Again one of my bad-camera moments. I hope you can still figure out the bird attached to the ring...

If you want things a bit wilder, why not try out some tiger's head?

Now that one would be one of my favourites. Since Harry Potter I'm a big fan of all sorts of owls.

Beasty... Let's have a screaming lion on your finger... Guess where I've seen that one? Yeah, New Look, of course. They're the only ones who get away selling this sort of stuff.

That one I actually somehow like... The snake loops around the finger and has a nice patterns of little black dots.

This would be my favourite, no doubt. A parrot on your finger... Unfortunately I arrived at an age beyond 12, so these kind of rings are out of question. A pity, really.

Chinese Calendar Drawings...

During on my walks through Soho, I decided to take a quick turn to China Town and once again I came across some stuff I just had to buy ;-) For the new year, the Chinese people seem to have a nice drawing dedicated to the new year. It is made out of a fabric and embroidered with elements related to the coming new year:

This one would be slightly older, I bought it in 2007 or 2008 -  at that time the year of the dragon. Notice the two dragons on the drawing... I've got no idea what it says on top of the thing, but I guess something among the lines of 'Year of the Dragon'.

This one I saw and bought for my parents. 2011would be the year of the rabbit, so I've got no clue as to why there are fish on the drawing, but hey, it's beautiful and my parents will love it :-)

Beautifully patterned shoes :-)

I adore the pattern on these ones. The shoes are covered with some soft fabric and have these nice patterns with flowers and birds. Nice - unfortunately the heels are a hint tooooo high for me to wear them...

Seen at: Office

Big yellow plastic monster shoes...

These monstrous apparels can only be used to scare away inmates in Guantanamo bay. Initally, I thought they were one of them new plastic boots seen everywhere at the moment. But then I rnoticed a peep hole in the front and realized they were peep toes..

Seen at: New Look