Merus

I love wine. I live in a country where wine is a must, and a very good wine it makes too. Though my favourite is any decent blood-coloured Rioja, I never say no to a sparkly golden Albariño. I love sweet red wine, sparkly Italian lambrusco and fizzy catalonian cava. So a winery is probably one of my favourite places to be in.

When I think of wine I always think of Spain, France, Italy and maybe even Australia for some nice Chardonnay. But it turns out that Napa Valley, near San Francisco, is one of THE places to visit for wine-visiting tours. One of the most significant (and beautiful) wineries is Merus, which is not only lovely for tasting, but also spectacular to behold:

Don't you just love reformed barns?

Upcycling with glamour

Seems like upcycling has finally reached Hollywood. Livia Firth (also known as the lovely lady married to Mr. Colin Firth-Darcy) has volunteered to bring the green into the red carpet. Maybe it's not such a big deal, but I have to admit wearing a couture wedding dress as a ballgown for The Golden Globe takes some serious guts and style. Her blog's worth a visit. Personally, I find the Uniform Project a lot more down to earth and realistic. Would you be able to wear the same dress for 365 days? Sheena Matheiken is bloody good at it.

On another note, I haven't been updating lately owing to hundreds of things going on in my life. Part of it is the up and running of my Etsy store and Miss Cristal website, and another project that really hasn't got much to do with design or jewellery but is lots of fun anyway. I must admit I'm pretty burnt out with publishing, and while I still dedicate most of my time to it, dealing with egotistic authors, printing cataclysms and general chaos and mayhem is becoming more and more burdensome, especially since everyone has decided that recession is a great excuse to NOT pay for your services. There are also a few personal and family issues to be solved before I can get back to being my usual fashion-and-architecture-obsessed self.

Be back soon!

Coco Love

It's funny how many people consider Coco Chanel a personal role model. Yeah, fine, she was the founder of Chanel, the brand that brought me the wonders of Chanel Vita Lumiére (the only make-up that can deal with my complexion), Chanel Number 5 and Red Dragon lipstick (sadly not available anymore), but she also came up with quotes as inspiring as these:

"I don't understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little - if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that's the day she has a date with destiny. And it's best to be as pretty as possible for destiny."

Apparently she was arrested for war crimes after the Second World War, owing to her relationship with a German spy, but never went to trial because the British Royal Family intervened just in time. There's a very interesting article on the subject in The Times Online.


Not exactly a feminist icon, hmm?

What did you get for Christmas

Ok, ok, I promise I'll be putting photos up very soon, as soon as my darling brother gives me my memory card back! Suffice to say Christmas was very generous with me, bringing me loads of books, cute little bits and bobs from the great socking-filler-expert that is my mother, some great new running shoes, a fantastic outfit for New Years Eve and even a bit of sunshine amidst the torrential rain we've been having. Oh, yes, and a bottle of Disaronno (lethally sweet and delicious) that hasn't lasted very long. Without forgetting my great computer, of course, so it's been quite a mentionable Christmas!

For now I'll just have to post photos taken with my awful mobile phone camera. This one is from yesterday morning, walking on the seafront with the most spectacular sunrise I've seen in a while:

Been to my jewellery shop yet? I'm also on Etsy and Dawanda!

Hooray!

Gay marriage has just become legal in Mexico. So I could marry Salma Hayek, you know, if she wanted to.

Dear Father Christmas

Funny how globalised this whole Christmas thing is, I'd actually forgotten that Santa was not always Santa for me, when I was a teeny little girly girl I used to call him Father Christmas, in my very proper British accent. He's Papá Noel in Spanish, but that doesn't matter 'cause Spaniards aren't really into Santa, they've got their own celebration on the 6th of January (the Three Kings, in memory of the Three Wise Men who supposedly visited Jesus some days after his birth). I'm not a religious person (being an adamant atheist ever since I left my very Catholic school), but I've always loved Christmas. Decorations, presents, food (specially my grandfather's, a master chef who sadly passed away a few years ago, who made the most amazing turkey dinners ever). Some of you Brits out there might have even tried it, he was Head Chef for the popular Basil Hotel in London for many, many years (also now sadly defunct). My mom is now the official dinner-maker, and she does a pretty awesome job.

So here's my Christmas wishlist. I already had my Christmas present this year, a top of the range monster computer I inherited from my techie pc-obsessed brother. Mine's not bad, but you should have a look at his getup:

So here goes my list of stuff I would buy myself for Christmas. I'm sure I'm gonna come up with 30 items more as soon as this goes public, but that's just Sod's Law:

1. A 100 dollar gift certificate for Catherinette's Steampunk Collection. Believe me, their creations are absolutely amazing:

2. Of course! A Bibian Blue corset. Thank you, Alex, for the day you introduced me to Bibian Blue and ruined my life, creating a whole bunch of needs and wants I never knew I had. They've even got an outfit with my name (well, pseudonym) on it!

3. A good night's sleep

I'm feeling so tired right now (and have felt this way for the last three or four months) that I'd really love to get a decent sleep and wake up feeling refreshed instead of exhausted. Of course I'd only go to bed completely happy if I got my hands on something by Bordelle. Yeah, I know, this item can't be bought, but I also want a cloned cat out of the ashes of my beloved departed Golfo. Wonder if that could be arranged.

In any case I have to stop now. I'd also add loads of books and quirky shelfs to put them on, but I'm literally falling asleep at three thirty in the afternoon, so I promise I will get back to that. For now it's back to work.

Bit by bit

I finally managed to get something done on the new Miss Cristal site, you can have a sneak peek at my work in progress in: http://www.misscristal.com/prueba