Friday 21 December 2012

On... last minute stocking fillers

Feeling bossy? Think your bestfriend/boyfriend/husband/parents/Santa need a little extra last minute shopping help this weekend? Then just forward them this.

I read A Total Waste Of Makeup, by Kim Grunenfelder, earlier this year, and laughed out loud – and I am a brittle ol’bitch, so that’s pretty rare. And now I’m reading the sequel and loving it –and laughing - even more. This book will get you through that interminable stretch between Boxing Day and New Years Eve.

I am a longterm Baies fan, but in the middle of winter, the rose-blackcurrant sweetness of Baies is too thin and frivolous. When it’s miserable outside, I want something comforting and earthy and foresty. Mousse is meant to smell like the moss that grows on trees in forests. Obviously, I haven’t got a fucking clue what that smells like. But this is lovely. And Diptyque candles are the perfect gift, as they're the wrong side of extravagant for one to buy for oneself.  


The most extraordinarily perfect-for-winter dark red lipstick ever invented. I know, you think you can’t wear red lipstick, but trust me, you can. I won't bore you with the marketing blurb, but it goes on like a gloss, seals like a lipstick, and lasts through three cocktails, tuna tartare and a steak, medium rare. If you want a lip pencil to go with it, the best I’ve found is MAC Brick. Makes you feel like Veronica Lake or [insert Old Hollywood film noir star of choice].

Smitten Kitchen recipe book

This woman can do no wrong. Her blondie recipe is impossible for even me to fuck up, her banana bread is moist and sweet even if you're a Nazi mother like me and cut the sugar down to almost nothing, and the gingerbread men – okay, gingerbread penises, it's a Gemma Burgess tradition – that I made last week are so chewy and spicy and sweet and good that I’m going to make some more for Christmas Day. Plus, she seems funny, kind, cool and normal.

 



 


 

 

 

 

1 comment:

  1. One can never have too much banana bread.

    Unless one is allergic to bananas.

    ReplyDelete