Saturday, August 29, 2009

Mille Merci Dress Your Day with Dreams!!!

A gift from Macaron heaven...


Not long after I started this blog, I discovered the beautiful world of Nathalie's in her 'Dress your Day with Dreams' blog. And she does just as the title suggests with beautiful photographs of Paris - including her penchant for beautiful Parisian doors, flora, hand-embellished works of art, and last but not least...macarons.

My love for these delectable patisseries has always been present, but it was only during my last trip to Paris that I discovered just
how much I loved them...On my return, I was upset when I realized I had not visited the famous
Ladurée or Pierre Hermé store, both world-famous for their macarons. Nathalie allows me to live vicariously through her experiences whenever she shares her beautiful photographs, a fact I have not kept secret, since her very first post on macarons. And so, it was with utter delight and excitement that I discovered a package covered with gorgeous French stamps in my mailbox a few days ago:

Sacre bleu! Emanuel Ungaro stamps! How gorgeous are these! What I had not told Nathalie was how I loved foreign stamps, and used to collect them; there was such a beautiful variety on this envelope.

I could not believe my eyes as I opened the package to discover it was filled with the cutest assortments of beautiful cards, 'catalogues', pamphlets, booklets, a beautifully handwritten Happy Birthday note from Nathalie, and the 'pièce de résistance': a gorgeous glossy Laduree bag of my very own! My heart soared...

The Valentine macaron by Ladurée
One heart macaron with fresh cream and strawberry confit, and one heart chocolate macaron with mint creamy ganache...


These little Ladurée mice treats seriously looked so real I could almost pick them out of the card!


(click above to enlarge)

I was in 'macaron heaven', as my eyes devoured the colourful pages with Pierre Hermé macarons jumping at me, with the most incredible descriptions beneath them, macarons in flavours such as: wasabi & grapefruit, salted caramel, white truffle & hazelnut, chocolate and foie gras (seriously!), olive oil and vanilla (my cousin tells me this is incredible)...I could seriously almost taste them...


Nathalie tells me Pierre Hermé macarons are her favourite, with each flavour so special, and its beautiful colours and texture. Looking at their pamphlets, it is not hard to see why...


(click above to enlarge)

pic above from david leibowitz
Picture of Pierre Hermé macarons taken by my cousin, who after getting married, embarked on her European honeymoon, where she indulged in her passion for macarons (haha, perhaps it is genetic?). Her wedding cake was a self-made macaron tower (she is a trained chef and pastry chef).



Even though Pierre Hermé's macarons are Nathalie's favourite, she loves Ladurée pastries, especially their licorice, mango/jasmine macaroons, and their beautiful boxes!


(click above to enlarge)

Mille Merci Nathalie, you are as sweet as all the macarons you sent me put together! Words cannot describe how thankful I am for such a thoughtful beautiful and generous gift!

The September Issue Outfit

Inspired by the beautiful pastel colours above, I reached for my baby blue patent Christian Louboutin's when I went for a spot of shopping with a friend, before we went to watch 'The September Issue', which I absolutely
loved. If you have not seen it yet, you simply must! I loved every minute of it...

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

My Birthday (cont.) - British in Burberry Prorsum



Loved the packaging, clever & simple

Chamoose!



Am still enjoying the beautiful & fragrant oriental lillies...Two days after my birthday, I had another birthday dinner, with my in-laws. Earlier in the day I caught up with friends and had a delicious chamoose (chocolate mousse drink dusted with chai - yum!), and received a cute necklace from my friends (who are currently traveling Mongolia for 3 weeks, so jealous!).

Love the decor of the restaurant we went to for dinner, my badly taken picture shows the hanging lights that are actually upside-down teacups, each one different from the other...Subconsciously (or not?) inspired by the 'British' theme, I wore quite a bit of Burberry Prorsum (quintessentially British, no?) that night (not usually a fan of head-to-toe in one label, but am I excused when they are all different seasons/collections? Pretty please?).

PS. I have recently joined Twitter to see what it is all about...not sure how long I'll last, but for now, you can follow me on brigadeirocc.




Pockets!

Burberry Prorsum AW2008 silk & wool coat
Chloe large Silverado bag (click)
Burberry Prorsum AW2006 Ashley Patent Pumps (a previous birthday present from my sisters)
I did not actually wear the Burberry Prorsum SS2009 necklace as shown above, as it arrived the day after, but I wanted to try it out, so included it in these shots...

Burberry Prorsum from 3 different collections:


www.style.com

Sunday, August 23, 2009

My Birthday with Roksanda Ilincic, Lanvin & Tom Binns

Birthday celebrations started early, the night before the actual date, when hubby asked me to pick a movie at the DVD store. On my return, the lights were off, but there were little candles on the kitchen table around the bouquet of Oriental Lillies I had received earlier in the day from my sister-in-law. Soft jazz was playing, a bottle of Bollinger chilling in the champagne bucket, and a big bright & shiny present waiting for me...It was such a beautiful start to the celebrations that were to follow...

Confit duck and lentil tortellini with persian fetta and radicchio, caramelised pear & hazelnut oil
I love sugar cubes!

Look at that gorgeous card with vintage Dior heels (contained a book voucher), the other present contained the below:

Kissi Stones (aka Soapstone) hearts - how cute are these?

Plenty of more champagne...

Black suede rose ring with freshwater pearls from Bauhaus


Birthday Outfit:

Roksanda Ilincic silk draped dress with Swarovski Crystals (I posted on this dress recently here)
Burberry black patent belt
Lanvin bicolour patent pumps with metal heel
Tom Binns Faux Real bracelet
Bauhaus suede rosette ring with freshwater pearls



It is hard to get the colour right for these shoes! The pink is gorgeous deep rasberry...Love the metal heel on these!

closeup from www.style.com

Thursday, August 20, 2009

The September Issue

My friend & I are kicking ourselves. We had plans to go to the 'The September Issue' opening tonight, but underestimating the fashionistas in our city, did not buy our tickets in time, and they sold out! Such a shame! Am now hanging to watch it this Saturday...



Anna Wintour looked fabulous in Prada (cheeky!?) at the New York Opening last night, and Sienna Miller stepped out with her in this gorgeous Thakoon dress I previously posted on (both dresses from the Resort 2010 collections.

Celebrities at The September Issue premiere at the MoMA, NYC
j-ent


www.style.com

G O R G E O U S !