True Life Blog

Zebra Print Pumps – Blue Inc – £14.99

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve probably heard about the Jimmy Choo collaboration with H&M. Personally I’m not that excited. H&M have already announced a wristband queuing system for shoppers and let’s all be honest as to why… they have probably only bought a limited amount of stock, just like with the Matthew Williamson collection. If you bring a designer to the high street to make it more accessible for the masses, I don’t think you should limit stock so most people never get a look in.

The reason I mention H&M is because you’ll notice the use of zebra print in bags and shoes within the collection. Black and white is always a classy combination and as soon as I saw the zebra print I knew I needed to get something in that pattern. Their zebra pumps are £49.99 and they even have a note to say you should replace the soles before wearing. You what! They may be suede, but I don’t want to spend money on repairing them before I start wearing them.

If standing in a queue is not your idea of a good time (it certainly isn’t mine) grab yourself some cute zebra pumps from Blue Inc instead. A complete bargain at £14.99. I’ve partnered up with them to pick out some of my favourite bits and these flats were top of my list. I wore them last night with a sequin dress, leggings and a boyfriend blazer. So glad I didn’t wear heels or I’d have been hobbling home from the festivities.

What do you think? It might have been overkill to wear them with my cheetah print scarf from South Africa, but I thought what the heck, let’s go with the animal theme.

Thanks to Najma for sharing these kebabs on the barbeque from Iraq.

Do you want to share photos of your country’s food? Join our photo group on Flickr and show us your photos.

Read more:
Madrid street food – Spain likes a barbeque, too
Arrosticini – the Italian version
Iraqi blogs on Blogs of the World
Catching a plane in Iraq

Celebrity stylist Kirsty Drury has joined forces with Wonderbra to share her top tips for making Kylie, Rachel Stevens and Cat Deeley look their best for the party season. Don’t forget to enter the Wonderbra competition to win a free bra and tickets to the Ultimate Strapless Party too.

Warehouse Christmas Collection

On buying the ultimate party dress…

• If you’re splashing the cash on your ultimate party dress you want to be able to wear it again and again. Go for an exquisitely cut dress that accentuates your body’s curves in a luxe fabric.

• It doesn’t want to be a glitzy ‘in your face’ dress, that will date after one season, as you’re going to vamp it up from party to party with on trend accessories.

• You can find relatively cheap and ‘of the moment’ jewellery, bags, tights, belts, gloves on the Great British high street that will update this dress from season to season, keeping it bang on trend and keeping the cash in your purse for more fun nights out..

Strapless Digital Print Dress £38.00

Making the most of your strapless outfits…

• Make the most of your strapless dress by getting your hands on Wonderbra’s Ultimate Strapless bra. It really is the ultimate party accessory. The new hand shaped structure means you get a great cleavage and it won’t slide down, so you can keep dancing all night.

• Layer up an assortment of glam necklaces in the same colour palette as your dress – chunky sparkly beads, ethnic metal beads, chains, diamantes, long strands of stones. Raid your jewellery box and pile them on. More is definitely more with this look.

• Oversized chandelier earrings that graze bare shoulders are sooooo sexy and look great with short hair. Long hair? A gorgeous updo is essential.

• If you’re a minimal kind of girl when it comes to jewellery then let your dress do the talking and give a nod to the party season by carrying an oversized jewelled clutch

Warehouse Christmas Collection

Ways to update last year’s dress…

• If it’s a mini dress that you’re reworking go warrior princess with OTK (over the knee) fantasy boots worn with same colour tights. Trust me, these are essential, as you really don’t want to rock that Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman look.

• If your dress is short why not start the night wearing an oversized sharp-shouldered suit jacket with it? Haven’t got one yet? Shame on you! Get yourself down to a charity store quick speed and pick up a man’s double breasted tuxedo on the cheap. The contrast of a man’s suit jacket with a saucy little slip of a dress underneath is too sexy for words.

• If you’re wanting to revive a solid coloured strapless dress add four diamante chain straps to each side of the bodice et voila you’ve got a very now Art Deco style strappy dress.

• Buy a couple of metres of velvet ribbon two-three inches wide in the same colour as your dress. Make an oversized bow and sew (or get a dressmaker to) the ends onto the bodice of your dress and you have a brand new one shoulder dress.

• If you wore that dress last year with bare legs then this year go for solid opaque tights finished off with a sexy on trend ankle boot. So cool, so modern, so now.

Now you’re party ready, grab your bag and head out of the door! For more style advice visit www.ultimatestrapless.co.uk

Kale, Grain & Spicy Pink and Purple Salad:
This salad uses my favourite leafy green: kale, gluten-free ‘grains’- Quinoa and Buckwheat- which are actually seeds and berries, respectively. It also incorporates my fermented Spicy Pink and Purple Sauerkraut!
Yield: 2-3 Servings
You will need:

1-2 bunches of kale, torn or finely sliced
1/2 C. buckwheat, cooked
1/2 C. quinoa, cooked
2 tbsp. per […]

Jacqueline Groag was probably the most influential textile designer in Britain in the post WWII era and the FTM is pleased to be showcasing a small selection of her work from 23 October until February 2010 and entrance is free.

Originally Czech, Groag studied textile and pattern design in Austria and during the late twenties and early thirties designed textiles for the Wiener Werkstatte in Vienna. However, she and her husband were forced to flee to London in 1939 by the political situation in Europe. This didn’t stop her work and throughout the forties she was the leading designer of textiles in Britain and much of the contemporary style of the textiles and wallpapers shown at the 1951 Festival of Britain were heavily indebted to her influential designs of the previous decade.

Her work and influence included large corporations and exclusive couturiers but was familiar to the general public through stores and companies such as John Lewis, Liberty of London, David Whitehead, Edinburgh Weavers, Sandersons, Warerite and Formica.

Jacqueline Groag died in London in 1986 at the age of 83 and this small but insightful display provides a glimpse into the work of someone who was incredibly influential in shaping post-war design and is accompanied by a book Jacqueline Groag, Textile & Pattern Design; Wiener Werkstatte to American Modern.

There will also be a booking signing by the authors on Thursday 29th October.

Talk with the authors
Authors of the book, Geoffrey Rayner, Richard Chamberlain, and Annamarie Stapleton will be discussing the life and work of this talented and influential designer, the historical context in which she worked and the milieu of modern design of the era.
Date: Saturday 5th December / 2 – 4pm
Price: £10

Images reproduced from ‘Jacqueline Groag’ published by ACC Publishing Group

Better taste than sorry is one of the few German lifestyle-blogs written in English. Markus Reuter a.k.a. roitsch blogs about “everything he likes”, which happily for his readers is about a broad range of contemporary music, design, everything 2.0 and last but not least his love for Hamburg, the city he lives in.

And his interest in music also brings us loads of concert-reviews from Hamburg and elsewhere in Germany. Definitively worth a look and an entry in your feedreader.

Read more:
More blogs from Germany recommended on Blogs of the World
Berlin counterculture at Kunsthaus Tacheles
Oktoberfest recipes

Danamon Peduli’s Danamon Go Green project turns organic waste from Indonesia’s produce markets into fertiliser.

This approach has two benefits: it improves hygiene around marketplaces by getting rid of waste before it starts to rot; and it helps the local farming industry improve yields by up to 30% by providing chemical free fertiliser.

The project is a finalist on the BBC’s World Challenge competition, and you can watch the BBC programme about Danamon Peduli’s work in Indonesia on this site.

Looks like technology the rest of the world could use too.

Read more:
Food of the World: Indonesian breakfast
Space-age vegetables of the future? Japan and the USA plan to grow vegetables in factories
Could flood resistant rice help farmers in Bangladesh?

Here is more proof that Italians are not the only people who eat pasta. Thanks to progresivo for sharing this Colombian pasta with 5 cheeses (pasta a los 5 quesos).

Do you want to share photos of your country’s food? Join our photo group on Flickr and show us your photos.

Read more:
A real Mexican chili
Lake Titicaca trout from Bolivia
Arrosticini: Italian street food
The cappuccino rule: Italians share their bar habits