Shopping Archives - Page 12 of 33

My New Baby

May 17, 2011 By Paola 15 Comments

I’m sorry for total lack of bloggery recently. I have a big deadline coming up for my University of Washington certificate in online interactive marketing and my nose has been firmly to the grindstone (whatever on earth that means).

The tedium was briefly shattered last Friday by the arrival of a new baby to the house – in the slim, lightweight shape of an iPad 2.

I’ve been lusting after one of these for a long time – I don’t find my heavy laptop with its short battery life to be particularly portable and feel very tethered to my desk most of the time. So I’m hoping this will allow me to tend to emails from the coffee shop; catch up with reading sitting under the cherry tree and Tweet more easily from in front of the telly rather than just pecking at my iPhone like a squinty bird.

It’s been a big hit since Friday – I’m really enjoying the Flipboard and Evernote apps so far and yesterday the Minx was at home sick and was educated via Math Girl – Addition House; Stack the Countries and Stack the States; DinosaurChess and Playtime Theater, all of which I can highly recommend.

The Husband, who works for Microsoft, was highly sceptical about letting yet another Apple product into the house, so I have to prove its worth by using it all. the. time.

If you have an iPad, how do like it? When and where do you use it? What apps do you like best and use most? Which apps help you work more productively? And which do you recommend for me? As you know I like art and design, blogging, food, photography, music, gossipy entertainment and fashion sites, politics and knitting. And more educational apps and games for the Minx would be good. I’d also love to find a few more European-centric apps if possible. And if you’ve got some good new iPhone apps then throw those in as well – many of those are also available for the iPad and in any case I haven’t upgraded my iPhone apps in ages either.

Tell me EVERYTHING.

Except Angry Birds. I’m nearly at 3 stars on ALL levels on my iPhone and when that’s done I never what to speak of that app again.

Royal Wedding Souvenirs – Food

April 13, 2011 By Paola 5 Comments

So I’ve been collecting links like crazy and am going to be boring you silly this week with a veritable parade of Royal Wedding memorabilia. First up is food to get you in the mood for the big day.

UK biscuit (cookie) bakers the Biscuiteers, have come up with a delightful Special Edition tin of biscuits, featuring crowns, glass coaches, tiered wedding cakes, flags, shoes, engagement rings, dresses and cathedrals. I would SO be buying this if I lived in the UK.

Brighton-based cake designers Choccywoccydoodah produced this incredible take on their signature wedding cake to celebrate the event.

Nottingham-based Castle Rock Brewery has created a special beer aptly called Kiss Me Kate for the occasion.

German-based Donkey Products has created a lovely pair of KaTEA and William teabags, showing Kate in her wedding dress wearing an enormous sapphire and wallowing in oodles of cash.

Poor girl has however got some very formidable inlaws to contend with though.

Finally, for those of Stateside who also want wedding cookies then Eleni’s has also created a wedding cookie assortment featuring British icons, tiaras, engagement rings, horses and the bride and groom themselves.

Or instead of commemorative china, you can buy cookies in the shape of commemorative plates, which seems to me to be much the best option. Also available from Eleni’s.

More Royal Wedding stuff later this week.

Sweet View

April 11, 2011 By Paola 4 Comments

These Sweet View prints by artist Jack Noel are really resonating with me this morning. Over the last couple of years I’ve been gently researching my family tree on my father’s side and it seems I’m a Londoner as far back as I can trace – at least seven generations to silkweavers in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green; chairmakers and cabinetmakers in Brentford and bookbinders and stationers near the Strand.

This series of prints shows London as it’s lived by Londoner - not the hackneyed tourist images but ‘views of the crossroads, markets and hidden squares that provide the true backdrop to a life in London”. So far he’s done six of the inner London boroughs, with another six to come later this year.

Hackney The view shows St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch (the famous ‘Oranges & Lemons’ church) – generations of my family were christened and married here.

Tower Hamlets (Columbia Road Market)

Westminster (I love how this is a corner of Trafalgar Square without a view of Nelson’s Column)

Southwark (Borough Market)

Wandsworth

Lambeth

Really hoping he does a view of Notting Hill for Kensington & Chelsea.

And the Winner Is!

April 8, 2011 By Paola 1 Comment

The winner of the beautiful Shabby Apple dress is Amy! She made comment number 5 as drawn by the cold heartless random number generator. Have fun wearing your dress in San Francisco.

If you weren’t lucky enough to win, then remember that Shabby Apple has offered mirrormirror readers a 10% coupon code. Just enter mirrormirror10off at checkout.

Congratulations again to Amy. I have sent you an email telling you how to claim your prize.

Things I Am Loving – Alessi Tigrito Cat Bowl

April 5, 2011 By Paola 5 Comments

I promise that I’ve completely stopped buying expensive cat accessories, though I’ve been horribly tempted by the Tigrito Cat Bowl by Alessi, mostly because, with its grey fur and white paws, it looks so much like Flora.

It does however cost $90. so let’s just admire it from afar, shall we? (Though it appears to be on sale via Amazon in the UK).

Instead, here is a picture of the real thing, looking rather nonplussed by the fake Tootsie Roll cat poop we made to play an April Fool trick on the Minx. It worked like a dream, particularly when the Husband ‘cleaned it up’ and started licking it. Never have you seen such a grossed out six year old.

Truly if you ever need to make fake poop, Tootsie Rolls are your friends (sorry, I don’t think there’s an equivalent in the UK). Just a few seconds in the microwave and a bit of sculpting required.

KK Outlet Wedding Plates

April 4, 2011 By Paola 2 Comments

There’s twenty four days to go until the Royal Wedding, so I’m continuing our round up of rather brilliant souvenirs. In fact you’ve all been sending through such fabulous links I’ll put together a proper round up post in the next day or two.

In the meantime, these plates are extremely special and deserve a post of their own. London-based communications and creative agency/gallery KK Outlet commissioned up and coming designers to create a collection of unofficial commemorative china for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. They’re available online here and they’ll ship all over the world.

dzn_A-Very-Modern-Royal-Wedding-by-KK-Outlet-4

They Draw And Cook

April 2, 2011 By Paola 1 Comment

As you know, I aspire – with varying degrees of success – to do a little food photography. To my mind recipes just aren’t complete without pictures.

On They Draw And Cook Nate Padavick and Salli Swindell. a brother and sister team, together with sundry other wonderfully talented artists, have put together the web’s biggest collection of illustrated recipes. Aren’t these exquisite? Looks like there are some great recipes too.

Photography suddenly seems very passé.

{via Helen at Countryside Wedding}

Giveaway! Beautiful Shabby Apple Dress

April 1, 2011 By Paola 71 Comments

It’s Spring and this not-so-young woman’s fancies are lightly turning to getting the heck out of rainy, cold and miserable Seattle and going somewhere warm and sunny in Europe instead.

Fortunately for all of us dreaming of summer, the lovely peeps at Shabby Apple have very generously offered to give away one of their delightful summer dresses to mirrormirror blog readers. After much humming and haaahing (sp?) I have chosen this cute ‘Trevi Fountain’ dress worth $78 a) because the pics make me want to go back and live in Rome and b) because I think the cut and colour will be flattering on lots of people.

There are four different ways to enter the competition and everyone can enter up to four times. Just make sure you tell me how you’ve entered in a comment below. The competition closes at midnight Pacific Standard Time and I’ll use a random number generator to draw the winning entry as soon as I wake up on Thursday 7th April.

If you win you’ll be able to choose your size and the dress will be shipped directly to you from Shabby Apple if you live in the US. If you live elsewhere, I’ll have it delivered here and then ship it out for FREE, so everyone in the UK and beyond can enter too. And if you aren’t lucky enough to win, Shabby Apple has provided the coupon code mirrormirror10off, so we can all get 10% off at the store.

Below are the different ways to enter. Remember you can enter all four ways as long as you leave a comment telling me how you’ve entered below.

1) Leave a comment below saying if and where you’re thinking of heading on vacation/holiday this summer

2) ’Like’ mirrormirror on Facebook (leave a comment below saying you’ve done this)

3) ‘Like’ Shabby Apple on Facebook (leave a comment below saying you’ve done this)

4) Tweet the following: I’ve just entered to win a beautiful Shabby Apple summer dress. You can too!http://is.gd/lkSbhM (And leave a comment below saying you’ve Tweeted).

Buona fortuna!

Update: If you’ve already ‘liked’ mirrormirror or Shabby Apple on Facebook just let me know in the comments and that can count as an entry too. Oh and make sure you mention each entry in a separate comment.

Royal Wedding Watch – Afternoon Tea at Harvey Nicks

March 30, 2011 By Paola 10 Comments

I can’t tell you how much I want this silly but charming Limited Edition Royal Wedding Mug, which has been specially produced for upmarket British department store Harvey Nichols (oh how I miss Harvey Nicks).

Tragically, it seems that this mug is only available from Harvey Nicks’ Food Halls directly, on sale for £20, or will be given away as part of an exclusive afternoon tea being served at Harvey Nichols’ cafés and brasseries throughout the month of April.

I’ll be emailing Harvey Nicks to see if it’s going to be made available online, so that people in the US and beyond, including me dammit, can get their sticky mitts on one. If you’re in the US and think there might be demand for it, can you let me know in the comments below and I’ll send Harvey Nicks a link to this post.

Soraam Cushions, Mats and Cupcakes

March 30, 2011 By Paola 4 Comments

Last week I did my first ever paid photography assignment. Soojin, the graphic designer behind Etsy shop Soraam saw my photos with Uncle Beefy’s cupcakes and asked me to do a little product shoot with her.

Here are some of the results. Her pre-washed linen placemats and cushion covers – hand-printed with her own beautiful designs – really are stunning. I particularly love the placemats, which are designed to look equally good with or without plates.

The cupcakes are again courtesy of Uncle Beefy, as I’d fortuitously frozen some of the previous batch (cupcakes freeze really well by the way).

‘Soraam’ means ‘take a look with a smile on your face’ in Korean. You really can’t help yourself can you?