Plastic Please?

We've all been downing bottles full of water, trying to keep our fluids up and parching our thirst. We're all happy to be adding up our allotted litres of fluids, so healthwise we think we're ok. But is it really that good all round? Somebody called Davide de Rothschild is keen to convince us otherwise and after seeing these.....

I quite agree. I was not aware that somewhere in the North Pacific there is a veritable floating garbage patch that contains millions of tonnes of plastic just sitting there on top of the sea. Where did it come from? Us. We use plastic all around us - just take a look at the supermarket shelves - bottles and bottles of plastic containters - shampoos, hair balsams, shower gels, polish removers, cleansers, plastic bags, plastic jars, plastic shoes.....

It's pollution with a capital P and the only solution is to recycle and use less. Rothschild is planning to spend 100 days at sea on a boat called Plastiki which is a catamaran kept afloat by 12,500 plastic bottles. He wants to raise awareness not only about what ends up in our seas but also about what is dying in our seas - there are less fish in the oceans then there ever were before. If you want to read more about this check out
http://ngadventure.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/david-de-rothschild-voyage-of-the-plastikivideo-sneak-peek-at-production-at-pier-31-.html

Umbrella in the Sun

Parasol

(Originally uploaded by girlwparasol)

Although I live on an island in the sun, it's never been really fashionable to walk around with parasols. Except that, in recent times, we've been seeing lots of tourists from the Far East, mostly from China or more often from Japan, walking around the streets with these beautiful paper or cotton umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun. Chinese umbrellas are especially exciting to see. The umbrella has a long history in China and records prove it goes back 4000 years. The story goes that the wife of a very skilled carpenter by the name of Lu Ban, started sporting an umbrella he created for her. This apparently got others interested in the new gadget. The first ones were very expensive as they were made of silk. By the time of the Han Dynasty (206BC - 220 AD), people started to use paper oiled with tung oil for these umbrellas. Therefore oilpaper umbrellas took over. Chinese umbrellas were eventually introduced to Japan. From there they came to Europe in the 16th Century. Do you use an umbrella in the sun? I think they are so very elegant, don't you?

In favour of dresses

Green Silk Glory

Mixing and matching fashion styles seems to be the epitome of style but when it comes to easy, practical living, nothing beats the simplicity of a dress. You just slip it on and you're done - then it's just the accessories which you can wear or not, dress up or down according to whim or mood. So, I've decided, that as from this summer I'm not buying any more separates but sticking to dresses instead. Here is where I got some inspiration....

Atta Girl Dress

French Vintage

Mini Muumuu Hawaiian Dress

Great Swing Dress

Harvey Berin Party Dress

Polka Dot Mini Dress

Vintage Floral Dress

Purple Dress for all Seasons

Giveaway Earrings winner

Bohemian Princess Painting

Today was the closing day of the free earrings giveaway from

Diane of Diane Costanza Studio.

The lady chosen to get this delicious pair is Liz of Liz Secret Rendezvous. Diane will be posting you the giveaway soon.

Thanks also to all the ladies who sent in their comments. Better luck next time! I will soon be posting a couple of unbeatable giveaways so keep your eyes open.

Flowers to celebrate Summer

I simply adore flowers and take pictures of them any time I can. I love to be around flowers even though I don't usually fill my house with them. But if I have to choose a greeting card, it will generally include flowers. If it's a wrapping paper, it's got flowers on it. And strangely enough, when it's my birthday all my friends send me cards with..... flowers. Guess they know by now....

My favourite flower is the yellow rose and I was blessed with finding a yellow rosebush on my front garden when we bought our house.  Above you can see my idea of a perfect yellow rose....This is a picture of my very first FairyFiligree giveaway which was a vintage hanky and I photographed it with the last yellow rose on my bush before pruning.

So imagine my excitement when I discovered these flowers on Etsy today....

Aren't they simply gorgeous? They may not be roses, but they are made by a lady whose shop on Etsy you can visit here.

Buying Bags

Most of us are flying away on vacation these days with a list of things to buy from distant lands - and if you're anything like me, you probably have a handbag or two on that list. Now if you're heading to Italy, please be warned - don't be tempted to buy designer bags off street vendors.

I had heard of this happening last year on Italian news and possibly even something similar the year before, so reading about it in the news again for the third year running, just a few weeks ago made me go ..... "don't these people ever read the papers?"

Imagine the scenario - one very excited holiday lady.... Venice.... a Senegalese vendor... lots of handbags with designer names.... great temptation especially when the vendors asks $8 for a Louis Vuitton purse... What!?

The lady falls for it and suddenly finds herslef close to being arrested and lands a fine of .......$1200 for her bargain purchase. A double whammy!

The thing is... when we buy counterfeit products, we are encouraging people to sell them more often. This in turn is bad business news for the big brands who depend on their products' exclusive genuineness to keep their business flourishing and hundreds of personnel in employment. I won't go into the issue of cheap labour which is probably used anyway to make the counterfeit copies but..... the fact is... save yourself a hassle - When in Italy avoid buying counterfeit bags from street corner vendors.

Photo credit - Marc Smith on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/3432301435/