Trick or Treating

Trick-or-treating or guising at Halloween may come from customs related to the Celtic festivals of Samhain and Calan Gaef or from customs related to the Christian holy days of All Saints  and All Souls. 

The tradition of guising — children disguised in costumes going from door to door for food and coins — is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. Before the 20th century, guising at Samhain was done in parts of Ireland, Mann, the Scottish Highlands  and islands, and Wales. 

The activity is prevalent in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Puerto Rico, and northwestern and central Mexico. 

In the latter, this practice is called calaverita (Spanish for "little skull"), and instead of "trick or treat", the children ask ¿me da mi calaverita? ("can you give me my little skull?"); where a calaverita is a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.

Tips how to trick or treat you will find here.

Pictures: The poppy Tree and The fun times guide and information from Wikipedia.

Reorganizing Your Wardrobe

The half term break is the right time to reorganize your wardrobe.  It is time to take care of your favorite stuff. Let’s go: it is important to keep the closet tidy in order to preserve the quality of your clothes.  Therefore you should, at least once a year, clean the wardrobe by vacuuming and washing the shelves, walls and drawers with a wet cloth. 

Divide the clothes into three piles - keep, repair and throw out.  The clothes in the keep pile, of course, go back to the wardrobe. The second pile, with clothes that need repair or dry cleaning, should be placed in a bag to be brought to the tailor or dry cleaners. The third pile is for clothes that you no longer wear. You should donate or sell them in second hand shops. 

Important rules: 

Give away clothes that you haven’t worn in the last 3 years. It will give you more room for the stuff you really wear. Keep the items that are most like you. It is not worth keeping that blouse you bought once because you found it beautiful, but the colour doesn’t suit you and you never wear it. 

Pictures: Shabby Chic Ireland, Elle Decor and Pinterest.  

Autumn Decorations

It is windy and the foliage outside is just incredible. The arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier. Summer has gone and the chill of winter is on the horizon. It is time to turn inward, physically and mentally.

It is not my favorite season but I find autumn very charming. I love the fact that in autumn we decorate with natural elements: leaves, gourds and miniature pumpkins which bring warmth to the ambience. 

However, autumn is not only orange. If you don’t like this colour or your house decoration does not suit it, try candles in neutral tones, glass jars, nuts, acorns and pine cones. The ambience will take on a rustic touch yet elegant.

Pictures from: Better Homes, Junk Mamma's, Martha Steward and Pink Roses and Tea Cups.

The Portuguese Guitar

Still talking about the 100% Design. There were some Portuguese exhibitors displaying amazing products. Malabar, for example, engaged renamed artists and highly talented artisans to produce Portuguese guitars. The result is elegant instruments, decorated with hand painted tiles or other traditional crafts. An instrument or a work of art? I feel like playing some Fado! 

100% Design News

Under new management, the show gained a new, fresh and functional layout that allowed the visitors (over 25.000 this year!) to have a pleasant time in Earl’s Court: it was very easy to move about and the fair became more dynamic.

Vita created lamps that are affordable and easy to transport: they are delivered flat-packed to the customer, and then assembled at home in less than 15 minutes.

The preference for Scandinavian style in the designer creations was evident. Portugal, France, South Korea and other countries presented their versions of the popular style. 

The designer Je-Uk Kim explored the beauty of oak to create amazing consoles. He combined organic ceramic pots with it, which can be used as plant vases or for storage. The consoles are hand-made in a workshop in England and the vases are hand-thrown in London.

Practicality was an issue in the show.  Many designers tried to create products which make our lives easier. The winner of the  100% Design Award at New Designers 2012,  was The Spun Furniture range of stools and tables by Hugh Leader-Williams,  which are designed for easy production, assembly and disassembly.

The Magic Wall offers such a strong magnetic that heavy objects like pots, knives and tins can be stuck on it.  

Simon Woodroffe launched his YO! Home. Although I felt myself visiting the Jetsons, I can’t deny that the gentleman is pioneer and the future might look like in his vision.

I was impressed with the very interesting seminars where designers discussed the relationship between design and environment and how to improve it; it was a pleasure to hear about the experience of young entrepreneurs like the successful Sugru’s inventor; Gareth Neal spoke about his fascinating carbon negative project in which he tried to produce furniture with low impact carbon emissions. 

The clear message of most seminars I attended  was that design has changed. We have fully explored beauty. It is time to take care of the environment.  

Celebrating Roald Dahl, Celebrating Children

British people have a creative way of raising money. They manage to mix a good purpose with having some kind of fun. Tomorrow, the 28th of September, is the Dahlicious Dress up Day. Primary school children can dress up as any of Roald Dahl's fantastic characters and donate £1 for it. 

This is a wonderful event to raise money for Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity, which helps seriously ill and disabled children. Classrooms and companies across the country will be buzzing with Big Friendly Giants, Oompa-Loompas, Giant Peaches and all kinds of phizz-whizzing characters. 

Roald Dahl had a very difficult childhood and a life full of tragedy. Therefore he cared about children, specially those who had the world against them.

With his fantastic stories, he lead my daughter, who speaks already Portuguese, German and Swiss-german, to the pleasure of reading in English. I think I owe him something. 

Let's celebrate this great writer tomorrow and in this way also help children. 

The Details book

What a lucky girl I am! My husband was in Sweden and came back with a beautiful present: Details at home is written in Swedish and English, and as the title suggests, is about details.

Details that catch your eyes

     

Details that make the difference. I particularly loved the flippers and the flipflops hanging on the wall.  They break the sterility of the ambience, making you laugh.

                

The authors, husband and wife team Ulf Huett Nilsson and Annika Huett, define their concept in this book:

“We’re often in a hurry to throw away, exchange or rebuild. But the details that create a personal feel don’t have to be new and expensive… In a hunt for fun and different stuff, we explored Sweden. We visited uniquely personal homes from north to south, peeking into room after room, and discovering that almost anything can be a fascinating detail… So give time to details. They might turn out to be the most beautiful things you own.”

They visited 32 homes in Sweden and captured in 650 pictures, different ambiences and ordinary objects as children's toys, kitchen cupboards and shelves with colourful dishware.  

Therefore I am delighted with the 192 pages of this book, with all these lovely  photographs that show us how details can be inspiring and make a house a home. 

If you would like to read an interview with the authors, click here. 

New York Fashion Week Spring 2013

The shows last week in New York presented a very sporty, graphic and ideal for daily use fashion. I am looking forward to the spring 2013, anyway. The picture above is from DKNY collection, one of my favourite labels. 

photo: Marie Claire

100% Design

100% Design is the largest annual design interiors trade event in the UK. 

It is the first time I will visit it and I am looking forward to. 

19-22 September 2012, Earls Court, UK · 

Inspired by Milk

Milk remembers childhood and is the key ingredient of delicacies. 

This is the philosophy at Bianco Latte, a rare jewel that I discovered in my last visit to Milan. 

Conceived as the kitchen of a large house, Bianco Latte is away from the Duomo and the big touristic crowd and offers delicious homemade ice cream, pastries and other many other milk products.

The interior design is also inspired by the candid product: walls, furniture and shelves are white. 
There is also a store with amazing accessories. 

A place to enjoy and celebrate Italianitá...