Gōng xǐ fā cái! The year of the rabbit...

I taught in China for a few months quite a lot of years ago and have been back a couple of times since with work. Unfortunately I've never been there for Chinese New Year  (or Spring Festival as they usually call it) however one of my students kindly found some moon cakes for us to try (traditionally eaten at Spring Festival). They were a VERY acquired taste, very dry and heavy and apparently very high in calories!

This year, it is the year of the rabbit and it is apparently going to be a placid year of calm reflection after the year of the tiger.

D and I love to cook chinese food together so I'm planning a bit of a cookathon at the weekend. For special occasions or when out to dinner, Chinese people (in my experience) generally have a banquet of lots of different meat/fish and vegetable dishes followed by rice or noodles at the end. D and I usually try and cook at least 3 dishes (2 meat, 1 vegetable) but have some fried rice or noodles alongside.

We have a few cook books but the blog Sunflower food galore is my absolute favourite place to get authentic chinese recipes. My favourites so far are fish fragrant pork (not fishy at all before you start to worry!) and Chengdu chicken. I love spicy Sichuan dishes but there are loads of non-spicy dishes there too to try.

Skincare trial, take 2...

Following on from this post trialing Soap and Glory fab pore hot cloth cleanser, my skin really didn't improve at all. In fact, it remained resolutely utter rubbish - spots, blackheads, open pores etc etc. I do think it does some good, it leaves your skin feeling soft and smooth but I don't think it is especially suited to my skin.

For Christmas, a friend got me a trial size of Clinique 3 step system. Now, I've heard bad reviews of this so had never really considered using it. Also, I have used the Clinique acne products before and didn't find they helped much (I believe they contain salicylic acid which doesn't seem to do anything for me anyway). Still, I duly started using it, partly as it was easier to do a quick lather up with a face wash than go through the whole S&G hot cloth thing. I had the set for type 3 (oily) skin. I could feel it dry out my skin a little but it has also improved it no end, in just a short space of time. If I use it every day (as I have been for just a few days) I have no squeezable spots on my face at all.

So, I bought full size versions in Boots and the package has just arrived so I'm looking forward to using them every day and hoping that my skin improves. I also bought these:

LA ROCHE-POSAY EFFACLAR K

Soap and Glory Greatest Scrub of all

So, this time I will come back and review these. I'm hoping they will do the job and last a long time. The trial sizes of the Clinique products certainly have.

New jeans and Saturday casual outfit

I picked up some khaki cargo jeans from the Mint Velvet sale and I really love them, I hope the pockets don't make my thighs look tooo big! I could do with a slightly longer top to wear with them. They were reduced to £29 so a great buy, really nice denim and a lovely dull grey khaki colour. I'm wearing them with flat boots at the moment but think they will dress up nicely with my black wedge ankle boots.

So today, I've just been mooching around, cleaning, walking the dog and I'm about to make a pork vindaloo. This is the casual (fairly boring!) outfit I'm wearing:

Khaki skinny cargos - Mint Velvet, black l/s top - Gap, biker boots - New Look, red leopard scarf - Sainsburys

I also did my hair with a Babyliss Big Hair styler which is fantastic. I really like it with a few curls added by a 1 inch barrell curling tong. In the photo above, it is just rather windswept after walking the dog. I'll add a few curls if I go out tonight. I love how it gives a natural smooth look without being poker straight.

The satisfaction of the sales...!!

I've been lusting after this Warehouse swallow dress for ages and ages:

Warehouse silk swallow print dress - link

I have already looked at the Warehouse sale and it is still full price so I was shocked to see it on ASOS at less than half price - £32! It was unavailable in size 8 at first so I stuck a 6 in my bag then had dinner and checked back and the 8 was available! They have a system where you can put something in your basket and it is reserved for you for a certain amount of time (2 hrs I think). This is great of course as it means you have time to think before purchasing but it does mean that "unavailable" doesn't necessarily mean permanently unavailable, I hadn't really thought about it before but it does make sense to keep checking back. I really really hope it is nice in real life!

Along with my utterly bargainous dress from ebay (£1.04 plus £2.75 postage - pics below), I will hopefully be sorted for patterned dresses. I'm not a big flowery person so I'm glad there isn't a flower in sight!

A bit of weekend DIY

This weekend, we have decided to paint the bannisters. They are in the lounge and at the moment are an ugly, rather dirty pine. They aren't very attractive as bannisters go, so I've decided they must be painted a blending in cream colour! Luckily, D has agreed with me!

This is how they looked before:

We painted (well, D did this bit!) first with primer and knot blocker stuff (otherwise the colour from knots shows through).

Then we painted in this colour:

B&Q Everywhere satin paint ivory - link

We wanted quite pale but thought white would make the carpet look even more dirty! 

Here is the finished product!

So, I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. Not so pleased with the painting blister I managed to pick up - D keeps laughing to himself at my having picked up a painting injury!

Black wedge boots

After lusting after some black suede wedge boots from Zara, which are now out of stock, I found these gorgeous black wedge boots on the Debenhams website. I love them, they make my feet look tiny and are really comfy.

Red Herring wedge boots - link

I think they'll look nice with jeans - skinny, straight-legged or bootcut or flared (for secret height boost!). Also with maxi skirts for a more dressy look than biker boots. They would go perfectly with this feather print skirt:

Warehouse feather print maxi skirt - link

At £36, the wedges are a great price so I should have enough money to buy another pair of sales boots. I'm thinking some grey low heeled ankle boots and love both of these from Carvela, I'm just hoping they are reduced after Christmas!

Carvela grey sooty boots - link

Carvela grey skin boots - link

I am hoping the height of these ankle boots would give me the illusion of legs long and slim enough to wear some skinny cargoes:

Oasis cargo jeggings in khaki - link  

Getting in the Christmas spirit...

Last week I went on a business trip to Germany. The work bit went well but wasn't all that interesting! The Christmas markets are amazing though, lots of Glühwein, sparkly lights etc. I'm still not feeling massively Christmassy but may get some Glühwein from Lidl tonight to see if that helps! Here are a few pictures (taken on iphone so not very good quality).

Cologne - a view of the Cathedral through strings of lights over the Christmas market.

A chocolate stand in Hamburg.

A Christmas market in Hamburg.

Father Christmas flying over the top of the Christmas market in Hamburg.

Christmas market in Hamburg.