1940's manicure

I finally managed to make a proper half-moon manicure! We went to a big birthday bash yesterday and as I had the whole day off I spent some time on my nails. Previously I have tried ordinary tape to mask the half-moon and found that way too difficult. The main problems were the fact that it sticks too well, which makes it hard to handle and at the same time it's so stiff that it's difficult to smooth it down properly on the nail. Yesterday I tried surgical tape and it was so much easier!

I read blogs

I read Casey’s Elegant Musings . Odds are that you do as well, but if not, then you have something nice to check out. I have been following her for years, since the time she made historical clothes at LiveJournal and I have always been impressed by her ability to do beauty whatever she do, seemingly without effort. She is beautiful as well and very kind and helpful. There are always something interesting to read in her blog, among other things she do lovely tutorials, they are very informative and easy to follow. It was almost impossible for me to pick a favourite post, but as I know many struggles with pin-curls, here are a post about that. . Especially helpful if you have thick hair as pin-curls seem to behave very differently depending on your hair quality.

If anyone wonders which blog a spotlight then I can tell you that I spin my bloglist through a random generator and use that order. I will need to re-do that now and then as I add new blogs. I’ll try to do one every week, so sooner or later I should go through them all.

The Perfumed Court

After writing my last post I set out to see which perfumes I could find. Years ago a friend recommended The Perfumed Court and though I had forgotten about it I found it again when I searched for perfumes. To quote them, they:

We specialize in offering perfume samples and perfume decants of a superlative array of fragrances. What we do is spray, pour, or use sterile pipettes to take perfume from its original large bottle and repackage it in a smaller bottle (we only use brand new sterile glass bottles) so that the consumer can try as many fragrances as they desire before buying a full bottle.

Finding the right perfume

I’m a bit of a fragrance nerd. I find it a fascinating subject and I love Luca Turin’s theory (well, he expanded it) that it isn’t a molecule’s shape that determines the scent, but its vibration, like music for your nose. Humans have actually a very good sense of smell and smelling something is a very good way to evoke a memory or a certain feeling. For me a fragrance can be a way to complete an outfit and I wear perfume every day. However, perfumes are generally alcohol-based and for some reason I find such fragrances way too strong and gives me headache. Though I love perfume, I can’t stand it when it is too strong.

How to walk properly

Walking is good for you, but it is important to walk properly. If you do that you use both the muscles in you legs as those in your abdomen. The feet should be parallel, about 5-10 centimetres apart. keep the weight of your body over the foot valve. The hip joint should move smoothly, but not the hips! Make sure you upper body is held upright, don't lean forward. Keep your shoulders back, but neither keep the stiff nor swivel them around. The head should be held upright and look forward, not in at the ground.

I read blogs

I read Sew Retro. It’s not a private blog, but a blog for anyone who likes to sew retro and vintage clothes. You don’t have to have a blog on your own to post there, so if you sew and want a place to show off, but not a blog, then Sew Retro is a great place. You do need a Blogger account, but you know that you can have that even if you don’t blog, right? Being a compilation blog, so to speak, I won’t point you to any particular post. Just go there and browse. I have found a number of great blogs through it!

(Talk about repetitive use of the word blog…)

Evening gowns

According to my list, when I start to build my wardrobe I should already possess a simple evening gown in black crepe and for the spring wardrobe an evening gown in a dotted fabric should be added. For the next spring, a blue evening gown is to be acquired, as the dotted gown clearly just lasts one season before it is to be made into a short dress. The blue one though, it is pointed out, is suitable for all seasons. Now having two evening gowns to change between, the authors clearly feel that the evening wardrobe is filled and for year three and four these two gowns will be used as well.