must-have: Barbie is ferosh!

Look at her! I kid you not. This is the newest Barbie doll from Mattel.

She's traded in her pinkness for a 'come hither' black outfit. Of course, you knew Christian groups would be up in arms, screaming "S&M Barbie". I think they need to invent an Amish Barbie especially for them. And of course, this begs the question: what have they in store for Ken? Mesh shirt? Chaps? Just being naughty.

The question for those of you who owned a Barbie is: would you buy this long-legged Emma Peel lookalike or would you have preferred a Wonder Woman outfit? And for those who never did: would you? So many questions, please leave me your answers.

must-have: the rainbow maker

Ridiculously expensive, but the munchkin chose it at her favourite store, the fossil and bone shop, and since it was so ingenious, I bought it anyway.

Meet the rainbow maker: place it in a sunny window and a solar panel powers the motor that rotates the Swarovski crystal. The crystal splits the sunlight into rainbow-coloured reflections that cast light around the room.

You will need a window that gets a lot of direct sunlight.

Enjoying the rainbows all over the living room as I type this.

Yeah but no but yeah but...

Hello, let me introduce myself: I am the queen of indecision.
Case in point: the damn fridge. Remember we bought one, oh, I don't know, about three days ago.

Today my sister innocently made a remark about how much lighter the kitchen seemed without the silver moloch in the corner. Which unfortunately set the ball rolling in my overworked head and, lo and behold, I had second thoughts.

Why did we buy that fridge in particular? And what were we thinking?

And so, for the first time in my life and in the course of the ever-continuing fridge saga, I relied on my consumer rights (yeah!) and I called the supplier and said I would like to waive my purchase. This is possible under the 7 day clause. Cash back, cue my indecision.

SO and I had been dreaming of a certain other fridge for some years. A must-have that matched our design ethic and kitchen style. Yes, I did the unthinkable. I went to the store and hemmed and hawed for half an hour, confused by the option of so many models and colours.

But at the end of the day, I managed to bring myself to make a decision. And I won't be using my 7-day waiver clause for this particular appliance.

So what do you think of our cool, new cream-coloured 50s Smeg fridge? Fit for a domestic demi-goddess, no?

PS - the pic doesn't quite do it justice. It's most definitely not that shiny. The cream matches the paint we used on the mouldings in our kitchen. Pathetic, I know...

Must-have: Meneghini fridge

I'm a sucker for anything related to the kitchen and since we're pondering the acquisition of a new fridge, I've been looking around. Of course, my eye had to fall on the one, most expensive fridge in the marketplace. You'd think it was cast in gold. For a mere 5,000 pounds, it can grace our kitchen in all its custom-made glory.

I think we need to get married soon, and get the embossed invites with the little insert card, which reads, please sponsor our beautiful new fridge, account no. so and so.

Splendiferous... Of course, we'd require a blue one.

must-have: Magimix food processor 3200

I caved in.
Look at it: how could I resist?
Satin silver finish, sharp blades, and it mixes, whisks, kneads, slices, grates, chops, and liquidises too. And you can use it as a juicer too. And it has a button that reads 'Pulse'. Sigh.
I am now officially an appliance junkie.

must-have: Mozart Kugeln - the campiest chocolates evah

Sooooo, this evening my friend returns from his extended weekend in gay Berlin (Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Weeeelcome), drops by to pick up his house keys and rewards my cat-sitting efforts with a box of Mozart Kugeln.

Those of you who are well versed in the sciences of geography and musical history will immediately remark: Austria, Germany, wot?

Mozart Kugeln are indeed an Austrian delicacy, although my box states that it was manufactured in Germany.

But let's continue: even though I might be a tad predisposed to that delicacy known as chocolate, my palate had yet to have a special encounter with this type of ball (sorry, I couldn't resist it).

So I opened the box only to discover 12 pretty round chocolates adorned with WA's effigy and... a prize! A Mozart CD. Shoot me, oh ye classical music aficionados, but I just can't admit to loving Mozart's creations all that much, except maybe his wind serenade (K.361).
I then wondered whether this was all about some synesthetic experience, whereby the music was supposed to enhance one's pleasure while eating the chocolates. I decided that in my case that was a foregone conclusion and proceeded to discover the challenge within.

My first thought was: it's a negerzoen! (Dutch candy, translates as negro's kiss, white and spongy contents on a biccie topped with chocolate on the outside, known in popular Flemish as a negertiet, negro's tit. Being PC is not a forte in Belgian dialects.). But now I am still reeling as a result of the marsipan and pistachio wave that hit me.

As one might have surmised on seeing the packaging, this candy gives a whole new meaning to the word sickly sweet. Two are as much as one can handle.

But I think it is a must-have, if only because of the campiness of the box that you can whip out when you have visitors.

So on the list of must-haves it goes!

And thank you my friend, for giving me something to blog about tonight.

must-have: radiator cat hammock

I simply couldn't resist putting up this beautiful example of pet gadgetry. I noticed this cool bed aka radiator cat hammock in one of Suburban Mum's posts and immediately fell in love with it. Our cat has a propensity to sleep on the very cold window sill, face down over the radiator. When the curtains are closed, all you see is a protruding paw and tail. However, since she's getting on in years, she also developed a cold as a result. Nothing worse than a sneezing cat, especially one with wet sneezes.

So the search is on. Of course, one or two worries remain. Will our moggie not be too heavy for this funky bed? What if the radiator falls out of the wall as the feline jumps into her hammock?
Oh well, time will tell.

Because you should always have a must-have: hot cocoa

Some days you need the comforting unctuousness of a hot cocoa, gently oozing its way down your oesophagus to warm you up inside.

Here's a quick recipe:
milk
dark (and I mean really dark) chocolate*
honey or brown sugar
vanilla extract or vanilla syrup (in which case eliminate honey)
cinnamon

if so inclined, you may add dark rum (but since I associate rum with summer cocktails I don't).

Heat milk
Add all the ingredients in function of your liking, and the chocolate, which you should break up in chunks.
Keep stirring with a mini-whisk until the chocolate has melted.
Fiddle around a bit with the taste until you have what you are looking for.
Take out the cinnamon stick.
Pour into a large cup, while steaming.
Find some good mixed spice cookies and snuggle up in bed with a good book.

It will become a ritual. As it is in this household. So without further ado, off to the kitchen I go.

*I'm addicted to Green and Black's dark 85% but my next endeavour includes Marcolini chocolate bars to take it to an altogether new level. I have this hunch that Equateur or Fleur de Cacao will cinch it.

Another day, another must-have: Claus Porto soaps

No, I'm not one of Oprah's little minions. But I happened to catch the press release regarding her favourite things list (which she gives away every year during some monster show) and my eye happened to fall on the following item.

I am by no means a label junkie; what I am instead is much worse: a packaging junkie. And these soaps are classic when it comes to packaging.

Claus Porto was founded in 1887 by two Germans near Oporto. The soap-makers soon become renowned throughout Europe and the world, for their fine soaps. The factory is still family-owned, and run by the great grandson of Achilles de Brito, who continues with the great soap making traditions that were a matter of honour for the original founders.

Only the best shea butter and the finest fragrances from the south of France are used for these soaps, which include wild pansy, poppy, honeysuckle, grapefruit & fig, etc.

But the packaging, oh the packaging...

Christmas wish list

It's that most wonderful time of the year when people start asking you about your wish list for Christmas. I usually have no idea what I want, so this year I'm going to put down every random item that hits my coffee-deprived brain and eventually pare it down to the one thing that I really, really want (ziggazigaaaah!).

- the Mitfords - letters, ed. Charlotte Moseley
- CD Rufus does Judy at Carnegie Hall
- Marcella Hazan cookbook
- a back massage
- Claus Porto soap
- Objekto table lamp
- good health in 2008
- to have another child
-

to be continued

Hung up over being hung over - screamin' placemats

As the weekend draws to its close, we are both slowly edging out of the darkness known as a hangover of magnificent proportions. What have we learnt from this adventure? That La Grande Dame champagne, a good but killer Rueda and a bunch of Cosmopolitans will not mesh well together. On the upside, though, we had a great time on Friday evening... with some great friends, so I cannot complain too much. My mother kindly babysat our munchkin, plus smaller monster niece and when they started chortling the next morning and jumping up and down on our bed at 7.30 a.m. (ouch!) kindly stepped in and shooed them downstairs to the kitchen.

Saturday was a veggie day (with us two couch potatoes). Today we actually ventured outside and breathed in whole lungfuls of fresh air, even headed towards the playgarden. Two lattes, a brownie and a muffin later, we felt human again. We also found the kitschiest placemats ever for our kitchen table. Scream, if you will. We did, but with glee.

The moral of this story is: thou shalt not go out like Lindsey Lohan when thou aren't used to it because you will end up buying some pretty loud placemats as a result.

In other news, 35,000 Belgians actually thought it was worth coming out to march in favour of the nation that is known as Belgium. Well done, now can we have a government, pretty please?

In more other news, the first of the series of surgeries in my family (it's surgery season, watch out) took place last Wednesday. My sister will be released from the hospital as my mother enters it (the same hospital, but to treat her Dupuytren syndrome, which is a nasty disease of the hand).

And so another week awaits us. Blah.

Simply must-have no. 4 - Jensen/Jacobsen cutlery

To some of you, I must sound like some relentless coveting design junkie. The contrary is true. I simply try to find the best combination of form and function, so that my life becomes more comfortable.

This brings me to my next project: finding a set of decent cutlery. My plight became all the more obvious this week as I will be hosting the whole family on Sunday for my gran's birthday. Not only did I not have sufficient cutlery to go around (well, we have 18 people coming over) but some of it looked rather shabby (gasp!). Having searched high and low, I finally caved in and bought one of those easy Ikea sets (thus adding another different set to our current mish-mash of silver and stainless steel).

I do however passionately long, nay crave the beautiful Arne Jacobsen-designed cutlery by Georg Jensen. There is of course the slight drawback that every item costs approx. 25-65 USD (thus if one needed a full set for say, 12 diners, one would be spending the equivalent of the annual budget of a large African village, while being able to buy them a whole herd of cattle too).

But look at the sheer splendour of it. Matte stainless steel, a fork that still looks contemporary even after almost 50 years. And although the Philistines at the hotel for which Jacobsen originally developed the cutlery stopped using the cutlery shortly after its introduction (diner to waiter: young man, now bring me a 'real' fork instead of this toothpick!), it is still being lovingly manufactured today.

Of course, I could splurge on the salad set or the futuristic pie server, but this would mean that we would have to relinquish Nigella's salad hands, which we cherish so lovingly because of their cuteness.

Thus, this is a must-have, but which can only be justified by the purchase of a winning lottery ticket. Alas, no such luck, I think.

Simply must-have part deux

Today, a squeal finally erupted from my lips after weeks of anticipation. It is finally mine, all MINE (insert manic laughter here).

Since spending some time at my uncle's, I have coveted that hugely expensive but streamlined polished steel Dualit toaster.
And now finally, it is mine.

Doesn't it remind you of one of those other design classics, the Airstream caravan?

Ah, mornings and more mornings of toast with delicious quince jam await me.

Life is heaven, admit it, when you can enjoy such frivolous and small pleasures.

Simply must-have

Every day brings a new array of objects that attract my attention, take my breath away, make me stop dead in my tracks... Enough already, here is the weekly must-have.


This beautiful object is an intriguing example of Brazilian design. The Eclipse lamp, by designer Mauricio Klabin, is also featured in the Moma collection. I love its simple but intricate design, the way the drape and folds remind me of a Vionnet dress. I am scouring every lighting store in this city at the moment, but alas, I think I will have to resort to mail order to find this little beauty, so that it can grace my living room.