Accessorise that outfit and bling it cheap with TopShop!
I'm just back from London where I've enjoyed a 9-day break mostly devoted to shopping, sightseeing and lie-ins in the morning, nothing too strenuous and no guilt trips. But eh, isn't what vacations are meant to be?
I have to admit that my love affair with Topshop (if we ever could call it this way) had somewhat starting cooling off a decade ago, with the advent of more exciting branded chains up the high street and department stores upping the ante in keeping with the fickleness of fashion.
This time around down Oxford Street, I would have probably given TopShop a miss if it wasn't for my friend who enticed me in. Although I personally wasn't much impressed with the actual clothes fashion that took me back to my teeny-weeny years in the 80s (who would have known these shapeless oversize stripped tops would ever be back in fashion?), the ground floor was entirely devoted to accessories: handbags, vintage bags and scarves (the latter the kind of imitation "carré Hermès" that my grandma used to wear), plus jewellery (mainly fancy, vintage-inspired and ethnic), and a cupcake bar down the centre, because couture - either fake or real - is never further than a cupcake away these days!
Fit for purpose? You bet.
It would have been easy to feel the need to splurge, but I stayed good. I only bought one item of jewellery (see top picture), a wooden assemblage in eye-catching yellow with icon-like figurines glued on top. Quirky clean fun for a fiver, I couldn't go wrong, and no doubt this will get me noticed (flash that wrist Nat, and again and again!). Wink, wink...
Hey folks, I'm just back from London and what a great time I had! But before I get into the nitty gritty, I wanted to share one of my great shopping finds: it's a cookbook I randomly sourced from Selfridges, Oxford Street's defacto flagship department store, the nec-plus-ultra fashion mecca at the heart of the high street.
Let's not be fooled here because this is no ordinary cookbook, it is an experience, straight from the heart and soul of a slightly eccentric character and business entrepreneur in the name of Angel Adoree who despite the bright hair and odd piercing holds good old-fashioned values firmly at heart and with this in mind put together a book that exudes Britannia in a cooler form than the so-called Cool Britannia clique from back in the 90s could have ever done...
More kudos than your nan's dining room (pict source)
In her book Angel (Angela by birth, in case you happened to wonder) presents easy tea party recipes direct from her Vintage Pâtisserie venture to suit any time of day and budget, with hints about hairdos, vintage crockery, flowers in season and personal comments, like a friend can only make them.
I told you this book is an experience! For now, I keep it on my bedside table. I might consider relocating it to the kitchen to try out the recipes, but for now I'll keep it upstairs as I never tire of flicking through the pages, reading the anecdotes and gazing at the beautifully propped, nostalgia-laden photographs! (to be continued...)
As we speak, La Baguette should be starting to think about packing up those bags as we are due in the Big Smog for 14th March for a 9-day stay with a friend of mine, Isabelle.
Last time I'd had a proper London break was almost exactly one decade ago (2002! Blimey, time flies!). I'd managed to pack in some cultural visits (Tate Modern, the definite highlight to my trip, and bits of the National Gallery) interspersed with long walks around the Covent Garden area enjoying the balmy afternoons between capuccinos and sweet treats, and taking the pulse of a capital city that has kept its fashion and cultural edge in check.
I'd also made what became some of my wisest shopping purchases: a cool top from Esprit, heavenly E'spa Spafresh, courier bag from Gap and pink sunglasses from Nine West that were to become my all-time favourites and last me to this day for only a couple of tenners! Winner!
It goes without saying that London is more than a museum and shopping destination: it is also a very atmospheric city, that marries tradition and avant-garde, whether in architecture, design, style or everyday life. It is a place of great fascination, a trend-setter and ever young, like Dorian Gray without the side effects! Can't wait to go back! (to be continued...)
If it's still nippy out there, we can't help but noticing that Spring is around the corner. Little hints point in that direction, apart from the warming temperatures (after that freezing start to the year!).
After the dragging hibernative Winter months, Spring signals nature's rebirth, and if you have a garden you will be prone to notice those subtle changes on your doorstep, from daffodils, snowdrops and primula popping up, to grass growth, to even the odd bee venturing past and birds launching into a concerto. Days are getting longer too and invite us to stay outdoors for longer!
You've guessed it, Spring is La Baguette's favourite season! To us it is like an epiphany, an announcement of hope and floral beauty! The big reveal is on its way and this is all we need to appease the aptly-named SAD (seasonal affective disorder)! (to be continued...)
Hey guys, there's this new(-ish) internet gadget in town called Pinterest! It is the wannabe aesthete's best friend, and anyone who's anyone has a Pinterest account, even our sister site Mirabelle Design Inspiration! And even La Baguette has garnered a fan base. Wow, so tell us more about that new kid on the block...
Pinterest is basically a giant worldwide visual pinboard fed through by its members. Individually each user has total control over which visuals they wish to pin and collate and organise into their own pinboards. You can add to the existing feeds content by adding brand new photographic material to it, whether your very own or from other sources. The easy user interface enables in principle to trace back to the origins of every source, copyrighted or otherwise, although it is alleged that image stock companies and Flickr have expressed concerns.
Check our easy-peasy tutorial. Once you've registered with the cool clique at Palo Alto and installed the all-essential 'Pin It' button upon your tool bar, the protocol is simple: everytime you come across a picture (or video even) of interest to you, whether content-wise or style-wise or otherwise, you click the 'Pin It' button and Bob's your uncle! You organise your virtual pins onto virtual pinboards, according to topic, genre, style etc. and you end up creating photographic mood boards, colour palettes and visual mosaics that can literally take your breath away!
As explained above, you have the facility to repin existing pins from other members directly off the user activity stream. Believe you me, repinning is very tempting indeed, and like the rest of the Pinterest experience, a very addictive activity, you have been warned. You can choose to 'Like' pictures if you wish and those likes will in turn be organised onto a pinboard.
If you haven't yet given Pinterest a try, why wait any longer? It is nothing like hard work, it is fun, inspiring, and there will always be that image somewhere that will make you smile, or make you go weak at the knee! Complete feelgood therapy! (to be continued...)
If you ask me what a 21st century woman is, here is my answer... Woman is a celebration: from the artform to the more prosaic as breadwinner. Woman is a lifestyle: from the proverbial 'cook in the kitchen, maid in the parlour and whore in the bedroom', to daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend. Woman means business: from career to civil rights to trade unions, to politics. Woman is the five continents and the seven seas: whole, complex, diverse, and a spectrum of opposite yet complementing qualities: sensitive and strong, idealist and practical, visionary and grounded, independent and dependable.
40 is the new 30 and Jennifer Aniston is it! (picture source)
I'll leave those 'primal' eye-for-an-eye angry frustrated tomboyish feminist answers to ladettes and the likes. This doesn't mean that I live under the thumb. Far from it. But in this day and age, gender issues in our Western societies perhaps do not have the same connotation as they did forty years ago. By the same token, I will carry on despising the misogynist macho types out there (I sadly personally know a few of them) who show women no respect, and believe their role lies in satisfying their every need. These very men who also encourage directly or indirectly through their attitude wage disparity across genders to perdure to this day.
I'll also carry on waging war against those sectarian religious beliefs that totally undermine women, forcing them into loveless mariages, stripping them off their personal, intellectual and financial freedom, squashing their pride, mutulating their feminity at its core to turn them into scared, submissive baby-making objects.
Tomorrow 8th March is International Women's Day, and La Baguette wanted to celebrate this event in its own special way, with a photo montage of the modern woman and what it represents (pay attention to the captions!), and to show us ladies that in a certain way we actually never had it so good... Yes the world is changing, and yes the financial climate is far from rosy, but it is up to us to keep seizing those opportunities that will make life what we make it. Yes we can!
Be yourself and be kind to yourself (yours truly on a good day!)
Unless you've been cast off an atoll in the middle of the ocean lately, you sure will have heard of The Artist, a black and white silent movie which has set Hollywood ablaze with 5 Oscars! The film is set in the 1920s with the unique selling point of having been filmed in 2011 (which is one of the main attractions of the film).
The plot centres around matinée idol George Valentin's struggles to stay ahead of the acting game with the advent of talkies. This French film inspired by the early heyday of Hollywood motion picture celebrates celluloid as a parody that faithfully sticks to the mannerisms, fashion, studio décor and cinematographic challenges of the times.
Alongside main actors Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo is a canine companion with flair who has more than one trick up his sleeve as an artist of his own: welcome Uggie, a talented 10-year-old Jack Russell Terrier sure to melt your heart!
Uggie 'The Artist' Dog Steals Oscar Spotlight (picture source: Terra, 27/02/12)
We love Uggie to bits here at La Baguette (although he's not the only JRT that we are smitten for!). We wish the four-legged silver screen star every success in the future and a happy retirement as we hear he's off counting the dollar bills on a Honolulu beach over a well-deserved Margarita. Well done Uggie for your composition role!
Meanwhile we'll follow your adventures on Twitter, blow you kisses on Facebook, and enjoy your recent appearance on the Ellen de Generes show. What a star!
Lost in Translation (2003) is one of La Baguette's favourite films of the last decade! It's as far from the typical full-on, effects-packed, all-singing all-dancing American blockbuster as can be. We're talking low brow, low budget American film, personal, timeless and almost European in its approach.
Not only has the Sofia Coppola feature film reached cult status but so has its title. The press, bloggers, Joe Bloggs and others have all adopted it as a catchphrase.
The trappings of daily communication, convention, social codes and relationships are stretched further and put to the test when you're plucked out of your comfortable Western surroundings and thrown into Japanese culture and way of life, carried out by a tide of human density, human emotions, innuendoes, misunderstandings, silences and long glances, surprised looks, blank stares, late-night jet-lagged errings and forced introspections.
Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) are both American, yet they come from two different if not opposite walks of life. They face their own doubts and fears and solitude. They also meet up, they get lost together, they rejoin and they part.
This is a beautiful, intimate, chemistry-charged film. Neither smarmy, chick flick nor dramatic. It's a film about relationships, with number one, with the busy partner, with others. It's grand, yet awesomely private at the same time. A delight on the box! We ♥ it!
Fave #4: Get one step closer to vegetarianism with Meat Free Monday!
Carnivorous friends, if the road to veggie is paved with good intentions that you feel unattainable, how about start off the week with a neat little compromise like going meat-free for the day? Monday is ideal as a good detox day after the week-end's excesses, and one day can't be that harsh a start surely, even if you are a die-hard meat eater!
And even less so when you know that not only will you be doing your health a favour while giving animal life a break, but also helping the planet at large? And you will be carrying out your one-day diet in stellar surroundings (or did I mean 'Stella', as in Stella McCartney?).
According to Meat Free Monday, 'The estimated 634 gallons of fresh water required to produce one 5.2 ounce (147g) beef burger would be enough for a four-hour shower. For comparision, the same quantity of tofu requires 143 gallons of water to produce.' Check MFM for more fascinating facts, as well as for mouth-watering recipes.
To La Baguette it pays off to be a round-the-year veggie, but it certainly is one step in the right direction for any of our meat-loving friends to give one day a week an animal miss! (to be continued...)
Ready to commit further?
Get ready as March is Veggie Month (with a compelling video to remind us that meat is murder and put us off that chop!)
La Baguette's had an on/off interest in astrology since her late teens. At times, and depending on my life path, what should have remained a casual hobby or penchant would verge on the obsession. I clearly remember the pivotal 2001-02 years, when I'd spend hours on Astrocenter trying to find ready-made answers and guidance when held back by personal setbacks.
I'd even bought one of those cheap paperback daily predictions that I'd read and re-read and interpret in a way that would fit my personal circumstances while trying to persuade myself in the process of all the good stuff that was supposedly in store for me... I'd even got myself a self-help book on I Ching, and would push divination further by pulling an Indian tarot card from some obscure website on a daily basis.
In contrast I went through long spells when horoscopes and astrology would totally disinterest me. Sometimes curiosity (and boredom!) would get the better off me, especially on late nights, and I would look out for the stars off the net. Nowadays though my astrological hunger is kept down to a handful of trusted sites from years back, like Jonathan Cainer (although his cryptic tone can unnerve you), Susan Miller's AstrologyZone and Michele Knight. To these I will add one of my major online discoveries this year so far. Enters The AstroTwins.
American professional astrologers and sisters Tali and Ophira Edut speak a language that I understand. Plus they look friendly and reassuringly next-doorsey (see top picture)! They talk like sisters to sisters, in an informal youthful jargon-free kinda way. They have dusted off a science often associated with the Merlins and Nostradamuses of this world, and sexed it up. Thanks to those girls, astrology doesn't look like the science for the desperado, but almost like a way of life, intelligent, meaningful, insightful and honest.
I'm sold! I've signed up to their weekly horoscope and as a bonus I got their free compatibility guide: "How to get along with anyone (yes, even that person)". Accurate and fascinating. Now I understand about that karmic link to the 5th degree of separation between my sign (Gemini) and that of Capricorn. Past life experience? Sign up too and find out... (to be continued...)
Now folks, those who know me at home may be right to question my sense of organisation and tidiness, although this organised chaos of mine does indeed summon some amount of logic and order, believe it or not. However at work I like to keep my desk space clutter under control and my computer files as streamlined as can be.
As for my handbag, you won't find any chaos in there! Explanation: many many years ago I read a magazine article about a supermodel who said she'd learnt to keep her handbag clutterfree, as in her early modelling years her agency used to get the girls to empty their handbags once a week, and she'd kept the habit ever since. I don't literally empty my bag every week but the mantra has certainly struck a chord and I keep its contents in check and travel light, although it doesn't only hold essentials but also little wonders, from a sample of Marc Jacobs 'Daisy' to a tin of cachou to my pocket-size Exacompta diary.
I'm quite picky in terms of diaries and despair when my mum or workmates hand over one of those free diaries. Chance is they'l be bulky, or the paper will be scratchy and poor quality or the layout just impractical. I like my diaries small, stylish, uncomplicated, minimalist and professional. Exacompta does the trick. One day when I'm rich and shamous I might even treat myself to Smythson. (to be continued...)
Fave #1: Become the Elephant Man (Elephant Woman)!
When it might look like all's well that ends well for the elephant cause, don't let false ideas kid you... Pachyderms are still being poached and tracked down for their ivory today. The cull is gross and is wrong, and unless we voice our discontent and keep boycotting ivory goods, the illegal trade will carry on regardless of the law and regardless of the ban.
What can you do as an individual? Remain vigilant, spread the word around you, sign elephant welfare petitions, join us in the Elephant March (see below) and support wild animal charities like the IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare). In other words, use every opportunity available to make sure you give elephants a voice!
Put together, those seemingly insignificant acts will help strenghten the elephant protection cause and hopefully stamp the massacre. Remember: elephants are finite and extinction is therefore a strong possibility under the current situation they find themselves in. Once they're gone for ever, it will just be too late! And ultimately do you really want 'the lucky few' to be parked in zoos and safari parks, rather than free to roam in the wild like their elders? So spare a couple of minutes now for a worthwhile cause. (to be continued...)
If the object of your affection hasn't yet plucked up the courage to utter them magic words to you, then I'll double make the point of saying them: I Love You guys and thanks for your support and following! Happy Valentine's, you gorgeous things!
Sources: (1) Zing it with a'Classic Lemon Zest' bouquet by award-wining Cheshire-based florist The Black Rose! (2) Be a hoot like the 'Adorned Owl' illustration by French artist Isabelle Duvignon! (3) Bring it to the crunch with a medium tin of love chocolates by British confectioner extraordinaireBiscuiteers! (4) Oomph it with 'Chocolate Wafer' from San Fran-based Miette Bakery!
Hey, it's been snowing across the net too! So then stay in with us, snuggle up and check out this selection of beautiful inspiring photography... Oh, hang on a minute... Is it me or is there a Valentine's hint down our icy Winter theme?
The cold wave that has been sweeping through Europe over the last couple of weeks has been well documented across the media. Images like that of the Vatican under snow will be remembered for some time, and so will the chaos that this unforgiving Winter has brought to our lives in different degrees of harshness. Let's bear a thought to those less fortunate, who sleep rough on the streets or manage just about to keep home temperatures bearable despite being affected by the recession.
'Adamo ed Eva Pupazzi di Neve ai Fori Imperiali' by Libero Guerra (via Flickr)
When you might think Corsica is safe, think again my friends, for we've been having our share of the bad weather too, and working outdoors for a garden preservation society I have been able to appreciate the cold first hand!
As I am typing up this post from the comfort of my parents' home on my spare day, it is snowing out there. Bearing in mind that I live a mile away from the coast, the weather is bound to be even harsher inlands, especially in the alpine region of central Corsica. Roads are routinely blocked most winters with snow drifts and I don't dare to imagine what they must look like right now.
However intrepid snow veterans like some of my mates will have used this as a challenge to brave over 20 miles of treacherous icy tracks to reach the disused ski resort of Haut Asco to snowboard down the piste freestyle. Others like I would rather play it safe and stay indoors. The only ice I like is the one in my glass, with a shot of Havana Club and a dash of orange, thank you very much!
Not sure whether this quiet time of year is the reason why it lends itself beautifully to an introspective mood, but lately friends and I have been discussing matters of the heart, otherwise known as the ta-da troublesome knee-jerking four-letter word starting with an L. No, just leave 'Lust' out for now, the L word in question is... (take a deep breath!) 'L-O-V-E'.
For starters, it's oh so funny how I find out that coupled-up friends are more likely to envy the single life rather than their (supposed) love-filled existence... And somehow the debate takes me back to re-runs of SATC. My friends with boyfriends in tow envy the fact that singletons like I are free, free to do what we want, when we want, where we want... And wait a minute, singles like I are invariably drawn to whimper back that they wish they could actually share their freedom with erm someone. Get the picture? No-one seems happy with their condition.
If I am honest, I recall that when I too was in a relationship, I used to envy my single friends who could do as they please and gave the impression of having it all (minus the relationship - which in a bizarre twist of fate did seem like a minor detail to the coupled-up woman). Having said that, there were times when I didn't envy their condition as single girls, when they were exposed to predatory conduct in social situations while I could hide behind my relationship status and enjoy the appearance of comfort and stability, although whether or not I was actually happy in the relationship was a different matter.
Love in untroubled waters: 'From Here to Eternity' (1953), photograph by Rex Features
We want it all but we can't exactly have it all, even in an ideal world. Some things may morph into something else (like the pretence of happiness), while some things have to give (individualism and selfishness), some need to lean towards compromise (freedom, independence) and others may simply snap or at least frazzle when bent too low (personality clashes, different lifestyle aspirations, self-awareness and love of self). This is the price to pay for being either single or in pairs. Either way, life is no bed of roses... Then again who wants roses when beauty is that thorny? I'll opt for the daisies.
A friend of La Baguette's recently introduced us to a French Canadian band and it was love at first sound! The song of choice is called 'Les Etoiles Filantes' (The Shooting Stars) from La Grand-Messe LP (2004) and is one of those haunting songs that you keep listening to for the words, the kind of song that makes you ponder about the poetry of life and makes you want to put pen to paper and give it a try for yourself. The video is simple yet quite cool. Check those long glances!
Si je m'arrête un instant
Pour te parler de ma vie
Juste comme ça tranquillement
Dans un bar rue St-Denis
J'te racont'rai les souv'nirs
Bien gravés dans ma mémoire
De cette époque où vieillir
Était encore bien illusoire
Quand j'agaçais les p'tites filles
Pas loin des balançoires
Et que mon sac de billes
Devenait un vrai trésor
Ces hivers enneigés
À construire des igloos
Et rentrer les pieds gelés
Juste à temps pour Passe-Partout
Mais au bout du chemin dis-moi c'qui va rester
De la p'tite école et d'la cour de récré?
Quand les avions en papier ne partent plus au vent
On se dit que l'bon temps passe final'ment...
...Comme une étoile filante
Si je m'arrête un instant
Pour te parler de ma vie
Je constate que bien souvent
On choisit pas mais on subit
Et que les rêves des ti-culs
s'évanouissent ou se refoulent
Dans cette réalité crue
Qui nous embarque dans le moule
Le trentaine, la bedaine
Les morveux, l'hypothèque
Les bonheurs et les peines
Les bons coups et les échecs
Travailler, faire d'son mieux
En arracher, s'en sortir
Et espérer être heureux
Un peu avant de mourir
Mais au bout du chemin dis-moi c'qui va rester
De notre p'tit passage dans ce monde effréné
Après avoir existé pour gagner du temps
On s'dira que l'on était finalement
... Que des étoiles filantes
Si je m'arrête un instant
Pour te parler de ma vie
Juste comme ça tranquillement
Pas loin du Carré St-Louis
C'est qu'avec toi je suis bien
Et que j'ai pu' l'goût de m'en faire
Parce que tsé voir trop loin
C'pas mieux que r'garder en arrière
Malgré les vieilles amertumes
Et les amours qui passent
Les chums qu'on perd dans' brume
Et les idéaux qui se cassent
La vie s'accroche et renaît
Comme les printemps reviennent
Dans une bouffée d'air frais
Qui apaise les coeurs en peine
Ça fait qu si à' soir t'as envie de rester
Avec moi, la nuit est douce, on peut marcher
Et même si on sait ben que tout dure rien qu'un temps
J'aimerais ça que tu sois pour un moment...
... Mon étoile filante
Mais au bout du chemin dis-moi c'qui va rester...
Mais au bout du chemin dis-moi c'qui va rester...
... Des étoiles filantes
If I stop for a while
To tell you about my life
Just like that, with no hassle
In a bar rue St-Denis
I'll tell you about
The memories etched in
About that time when getting old
Was only a distant memory
When I used to annoy
The girlies by the swings
And my bag of marbles
Was some right treasure
And those snowy Winters
Spent building igloos
Getting home freezing cold
Just in time for Passe-Partout
But at the end of the day tell me
What's left of the school yard?
When paper planes won't fly to the wind
You just say that good times shoot by...
... Like a shooting star
If I stop for a while
To tell you about my life
I notice that often
We have no choice
Decision's made for us
And dreams we had as kids
Fade away or are replaced
By the stark reality
That the norm moulds us in
Knocking on thirty, getting a belly
Kids and mortgage
Joys and tears
The good deals and the bad deals
Making a living, doing one's best
Working hard, succeeding
And hoping to be a bit happy
Before popping it
But at the end of the day
What's left of our quick foray
Into that crazy world
After making a living to save some time
We'll say that finally...
... We are shooting stars
If I stop for a while
To talk to you about my life
Just like that, with no hassle
Nearby Carré St-Louis
It's cos' I feel fine with you
And I'm over getting worried for nothing
Cos' you know, looking too far ahead
Is no better than looking back
Despite the old bitterness
And fleeting love affairs
The chums we lose in the fog
And the ideals that get broken
Life holds on and gets reborn
With Spring back on
In a breath of fresh air
That soothes sore hearts
So if one night you wanna stay
With me, night is mild
We can take a walk
And even if we know that nothing lasts
At least I'd like you to be for a while
... My shooting star
But at the end of the day tell me what's gonna stay...
But at the end of the day tell me what's gonna stay...
... Shooting stars
Some products age gracefully. Take the Chuck Taylor All Star Converse sneakers that were never meant to stay prim and proper. In fact, the more they get battered with age and use, the better they look, and the more mileage they clock, the more rock 'n' roll street cred they get. Just check this well-travelled pair, now totally rain-washed, with two careless owners to boot, not quite destined for the bin just yet despite being holey in different places. Kurt Cobain would have been proud! (to be continued...)
My friend Isabelle Duvignon is a Parisian artist based in Corsica. In the coming weeks I will have countless opportunities to reveal more to you about her art, either via La Baguette or Mirabelle! Meanwhile I am really fond of those cute little kokeshi figurines that she skillfully paints on flat pebbles that she picks from the local beach. The Orient plays a part in the worldwide influences that have permeated Isa's illustrations and paintings along the years. Scandinavia and Russia play a part too, with richly adorned compositions that I will have the privilege to reveal to you soon!
Kokeshis have been hand-made for the last 150 years as wooden dolls by the Kiji-Shi artisans from the northern province of Tohoku. Traditionally kokeshis are given as a friendship or love token. For my part, I am determined to believe that kokeshis bring luck and this little pebble follows me everywhere in my travels! (to be continued...)
Fave #2: Accessorising your portable office with a Crumpler laptop bag!
The nomadic office lifestyle needn't be confined to the constraints of the box, with bog-standard tools of the trade and their one-size-fits-all laptop cases. La Baguette has long understood that the devil is in the detail and that the detail lays out the difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary, between the norm and the quirk. It's no leap of faith, just a way of thinking. La Baguette wasn't going to skimp on style for its brand-new 17" laptop, and German bag specialist Crumpler had the solution!
From the large collection of original Crumpler bags available, we chose the New Gimp with Moses Effect in red. It was decided that 39 Euros was going to be money well spent, justified by the high quality standards backed up by a 30-year guarantee (!), plus protection padding, and neoprene material with special 'Moses effect' (coating ensuring water resistance and protection against dust and dirt).
Crumpler sums it up admirably: 'I don't even need to say anything about The Gimp neoprene laptop wrap. People just look at it and already they've purchased one in their heads. You could have the crappiest laptop wrap in the world and you'd still buy it just because it looks so great.' Point taken!(to be continued...)
Hello & welcome to La Baguette Magique!A celebration of lifestyle, with a difference: content-rich, vitamin-laden intelligent food for thought for a lifestyle with attitude that is no recipe compilation - nor contest!
Around, about and beyond lifestyle, with an artistic inclination: from culture to architecture, via design, fashion, shopping, entertaining and current affairs... We'll even add a culinary recipe or two for good measure.
A collection of essays close enough to the world to be part of the fun, while taking one step back in order to stay ahead. Close enough to food to whet your appetite, yet far enough from it to spare you the lingering kitchen smells and greasy cutlery.
Thanks for your visit and be sure to return as there is always a surprise in store!
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The opinions expressed on La Baguette Magique are my own. None of the brands/ products mentioned or featured are endorsed.
