What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

2011 was a wonderful year for me. I graduated from University, staffed a CISV village, made new friends, reconnected with old ones, spent three weeks in Europe with one of my best friends and started my own business, earning money doing what I love. Tonight I'm going out with my all my family for a nice New Year's Eve dinner, I'll probably dance a bit and watch the fireworks and cheer when we welcome 2012.

Here's to 2012, and to the joys it will bring. 

When the clock strikes 12, 

P.S. Here are two cute New Year's Eve videos. One is a song by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt and the other is my favorite version of Aulde Lang Syne from the soundtrack of SATC.

Photos All from We heart it.

Things I Need To Remember

Via Pin interest and We heart it.

Girls Who Read

My brother sent me an article about Dating Girls Who Read. After reading it, I immediately forwarded it to my fellow female bookworm friends. One of them responded saying, "I love this. PROOF. proof that it isn't weird to smell books and talk about characters like they're real and laugh/cry hysterically by yourself while reading :)) We aren't alone!! :P" Another friend shared the article entitled You Should Date An Illiterate Girl.

Ahh, the polarizing power of books. Do you love to read? Do lines and events from books run through your head all day, connecting everyday events to things you've read? Do you like the smell of books? 

Photos via Weheartit 1, 2 & Bouncytrouncyfun

Perfume

I just love how adorable this Lanvin ad is. Such a cute perfume name too.

Photo via

Holiday Link List

How are your holiday plans going? Have you bought and sent all your gifts? (I haven't at all! Eeep!) Have you gotten yourself some lovely new clothes for all the holiday parties? (I'm still searching!) But I do have a list of some lovely holiday inspired links, that get me in the mood for Christmas, the gift wrapping and getting gussied up for the seasons parties.

Checkout Design Mom's list of Top 20 Christmas Books

Beautiful wrapping ideas by Creature Comforts

Ezee's amazing online Holiday magazine Gifted.

A great guide for pairing earrings and hairstyles this holiday season.

I'm planning on using these, Spin Pins  by Goody to make chic holiday chignons. I'm thinking a bun would look great with a side braid, simple eye make up and red lips.

I want to try Ginny's list of favorite Red Lipsticks.

Riveting Choose Your Own Fashion Adventure Video. I keep watching it over and over, making new choices each time.

Fun and Funky DIY Nails Designs for the holidays.

I adore this Tiffany & Co. holiday campaign (its from 2010 but still lovely). The brand also has an accompanying video.


Photos of Tiffany and Co. Holiday Campaigns via We heart it and Echoadime

Christmas Decorations

I love these Christmas decorating ideas from Interio, the amazing Swiss Home Shop. I particularly love the idea of decorating the space between the inner and outer windows and filling up a nice glass vase with ornaments and weaving a string of lights through it. The effect is modern, classy and still very Christmasy. All  Photos by Interio.

Christmas Makeovers

I love these before and after images from Interio's Catalogue. Sorry for the slightly blurry images. I scanned these myself from my own copy of the catalogue.

Interio is a lovely Swiss home store. Rosie and I wandered into one of their shops while in Lucerne this past October. I fell in love with their products and picked up one of their free store catalogues for inspiration this holiday season.


Photos from Interio

Fragonard: The Scents of Southern France

I love perfume and dream of amassing different scents that I can pick and choose from depending on my mood. I like fruity, floral and citrusy scents.


While in Grasse, France last month, Rosie and I took a tour of the Fragonard perfume factory. We learned about the fruits, flowers, herbs and plants perfume scents are sourced from and how the scents are harvested to create perfumes and other scented products such as soaps and lotions. Our guide also let us smell different Fragonard scents and they even gave us small sample bottles to take home. Sweet!


After the tour we got a chance to explore the factory store. I was in olfactory heaven and in my opinion we didn't have enough time in there. Nonetheless, I ended up getting two eau de toilette bottles as presents for my sisters.


A bottle of Etoile, French for Star. This was the first perfume I smelled and the one I like best. This scent is described as a "woody, floral scent with citrus accents."

For my younger sister I asked the saleslady to recommend something appropriate for a young teenager and she led me to Mademoiselle Amour, "a mischievous eau de toilette brimming with tenderness, offering a tangerine, strawberry and apple top note, a rose, jasmine and sweet pea middle note and a raspberry back note." This sweet little scent came in a cute cosmetics pouch with a heart motif and was accompanied by a small pocket mirror. 

 For myself I ended up with a lovely free sample bottle of Marche aux Fleurs, described on the website as "a magnificent floral, fruity mixture of melon and black currant with a hint of sweet pea, lily of the valley, vineyard peach along with a lasting scent of jasmine, orange blossom and musk that lingers."


 It's a lovely scent, bright but gentle and I find myself trying not to use up my little bottle so quickly so as to keep it lasting longer. Scents have such powerful memories attached to them and when I smell this one I'm transported back to that lovely day in Southern France. 

What perfumes and scents do you guys love?








Photos from Fragonard perfume and Swiss Spring.