Shops in London

Sigh I miss being a lady of leisure, waking up every morning just to slap on lipstick and a cute outfit ( I lie. It didn't really matter what I wore, I never took off my coat anyways it was so cold... but for the purposes of whetting your imaginations...), and then the slam of a door and I was out in the cold crisp London air, headed out to catch one of those red double decker bus.

Most days I wonder if my fellow bus passengers wondered who I was as I commuted with my head in the clouds, wondering what I would see that day, and how nice it was to be semi-local, living in a house instead of a hotel in a foreign city and yet so uncertain about the life around me.

Before all the holiday goodness wears off and 'Business as usual' takes over completely my post-holiday glow, I wanted to do one more photographic holiday post on the shopping in London:

To Scuol to ski

Tarasp Castle

Church in Tarasp

Typical xmas decor in Scuol-Tarasp

In the neck of the woods. Ain't this quite like a Twilight saga scene?

Making snow angels

Furry snow

The best butcher in the region

Winter Wanderveg #1

Winter Wanderveg #2

Something tranquil about being in Scuol-Tarasp. a small region, a lesser well known place perhaps to the other Ski fields in Switzerland. But as I listened to the locals greet each other cheerfully and their proud accounts of the wonderful activities the town gets up to, how each family probably has about three different sources of income (ski-related, farming, hunting, hospitality etc) I am glad to have been here rather than ritzy St.Moritz.

A place where shops don't open on Sundays, where everyone engages in outdoor activities whenever the sun is out (sledding, Nordic skiing, Winter walks, spa baths, snow-shoveling, ice-skating), where the people know exactly where they are by looking at the mountains and what time it is by the position of the sun and the chiming of the town bells and where the houses have been around from the 16th century, passed down from generation to generation.

Take a deep breath of the crisp, cold air, one might think its the altitude to blame for being short of breath, but look carefully once more, the scenery does take one's breath away.

Europe 2012 haul

Europe 2012 haul by happy-e-after featuring 

 Chanel earrings/ Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Apparence Holiday Makeup 2012/H&M beige sleeveless top/ H&M white jacket, $40/  Zara knit with shoulder embellishments/  H&M puffy jacket , $48 / H&M skinny fit jeans, $16 / Longchamp 'le Pliage' tote/ Maison Martin Margiela with H&M Fusion of two trousers/ Chanel leather GST / GAP 1969 oxblood skinny pants / GAP color block sweater /ALDO flat shoes / Anthropologie Ruched tops/ Mark & Spencer ankle Strap boots, $56 H&M print wrap dress, $19/ Michael Kors Tonne Pebbled Leather Hobo bag

I know it might not look like much but between travelling, fooding, souvenir shopping and seeing shows, I am still proud to have amassed these new items. My credit card bill however, is another story.

One Day in Brussels



Manneken Pis

 


Statue of Everard 't Serclaes, a medieval Brussels hero. Legend has it that striking the arm of the statue brings luck

 


Jeanneke Pis - counterpoint gender statue to the Manneken Pis



 

Inside Le Cirio: 1886 grand café

Famous characters from Belgium: #1 The Smurfs

Famous characters from Belgium: #2 Tintin

Inside Delirium cafe where there's over 2000 beers to be had



Buy a beer glass (or two) but don't steal them from the bars please! :P



The Royal Windsor was centrally located and if you look online there are gorgeous bed and breakfast deals to be found that are far better than the walk-in rates



This year I bought

I always thought it was traditional to do a recap of all that has happened in the year. Reflect upon what was great this year and what I wow to do better next year. This post is dedicated to the loads of fun I have had self-indulging and blogging about this year. It was fun to resume my normal spending habits once there no longer was a looming big event that I had to save for (most of last year's purchases were wedding related), truth be told, there was a bulk of these items that came about because of the new lifestyle I began leading staying with my in-laws, with all that extra spare cash I now have.

First the beauty department:

 A mixture of luxury and non-luxury items. This doesn't even include the nail foils and falsies and freebies that I had gotten this year. Most the items were purchased from Priceline, Malaysia (still the cheapest place to buy cosmetics I find) and at beauty events.

Next up, the clothes:

 Labels featured here include Zara, Topshop, Kookai, Dotti, Sass, Cue, Zeitgeist, Sheike, Wayne Cooper, Forever New, Pleasure State, Witchery, etc, bought from the markets or retailers locally (Yes I still shop the brick and mortar variety). And yes the brands like Dolan, Marc Jacobs, Rory Beca and New Romantics, Tory Burch are courtesy of Shopbop whilst the capped toe wedges are Asos.

Other accessories I couldn't fit into the collage included booties, Mollini sky-high heels, two lust have bags (Rebecca Minkoff Quilted affair and 3.1 Phillip Lim Pashli), Statement necklaces, Missoni scarf, Fendi frames, iPhone cover and iPhone 5, Gum boots, and earrings from Colette and MJ cushion cut studs:

Again a mix of store bought and e-tail. And a mix of high-end and cheapies.

Just another year that hasn't had too much else happening, but filled with so many moments of simple bliss in either opening a parcel or trying on the clothes as soon as I got home, I think it tided me through some tough times and many a fashion dillema of 'not-having-anything-to-wear'.

Happy New Year guys!

P.S. this post scarily doesn't include absolutely everything I bought this year. There were some I didn't save the pics of or I might have utterly miss. Also, as I collated this before my UK/ Europe trip, I really didn't truthfully have full disclosure here. Nevertheless, you know I'll do a haul post when I get back, and by then, it really counts as purchases for the New Year anyways. *wink*