My little mouse

It was cold last week in Castlemaine. Georgie dressed appropriately, of course. She has a wardrobe full of appropriate outfits for every occasion.

Kitty x

A tad salty

Has anyone else tried the new sea salt dark chocolate from Lindt?


Oh my goodness. It's absolutely phenomenal. I was originally skeptical (despite my love of the salty sweet combination) but one small square sent it straight to the top of the Miss Kitty charts for excellence. The fleur de sel elevates the normal dark chocolate (which is good to start with) to something ethereal, otherworldly, completely decadent, fabulous...

Suffice to say it didn't last long in our house. Even Mr K, who isn't really a chocolate lover, went back for seconds. If that isn't a resounding endorsement, I don't know what is.

Lucky I have an emergency bar in the cupboard. I think I might have to go and break it open.

Kitty

PS: If you don't want to shell out the money to try it, you can get a bar free with this month's Delicious magazine...

A huge, dramatic week

We have had a monumental week in the Kitty household.

We drove to Melbourne overnight (call us mad but at least Georgie slept through the entire trip) and were greeted by floods and floods of rain - yay!

The day we were due to leave Melbourne, we were unfortunately rear ended while sitting at an intersection in St Kilda. Luckily we were all okay, however, the car - not so much. We lost the rear window of the Volvo station wagon, shattered all over the intersection and the tailgate is completely wrecked.

Cue an hour and 38 minutes on the phone to our insurance company in the pouring rain as everything we owned gradually got wetter and wetter as the car filled with water. The car was completely undriveable for any kind of distance with no back window. Luckily we could get back to the apartment we stayed at previously and some hard and fast negotiation by Mr Kitty saw a new window fitted in almost record time the following day. My mother and father came to the rescue, driving Georgie and I back to Castlemaine with all of our stuff. Which we then proceeded to wash the glass from. Yay.

Unfortunately things didn't get much better from there. Poor wee Georgie took it upon herself to start growing more teeth just as we arrived in Castlemaine. Timely much? Sleepless nights and grizzling and general unhappiness abounded, culminating in a co-sleeping nightmare whipped into a frenzy of screaming, pain and nurofen induced blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

And as we got home, I collapsed - literally - into a pile of snot. A week of stress, sleeplessness, cold, damp and craziness meant that by the end I was completely rundown. Getting the sniffles was inevitable.

One of my mother's artworks

The upsides of the week - we ate at MamaBaba and Red Spice Road (one of my favourite restaurants of all time), I spent some quality time with some of my favorite ladies and I got to see my mother's gallery exhibition which was phenomenally good. She is so very talented. The exhibition is on at the moment at the Faulkner Gallery in Castlemaine until the beginning of July and then from the beginning until the end of September (closed for August). If you are in the area, I highly recommend stopping by.

So, all in all, an overwhelming week in the Kitty house. I'm spending the next few days having some well deserved R&R, in an attempt to kick this cold out of the ballpark. Fingers crossed Georgie gets with the program and sleeps well!

Peace, out.

Kitty x

Sparkletastic

I bought this necklace from Ann Taylor while I was in the US. I was in the store attempting to get out of the intense insane heat - just browsing, of course - when I stumbled across this in the accessories department. It is so glamorous, so sparkletastic, I just had to have it. The picture doesn't do it justce at all. It makes me feel like Marie-Antoinette, well without the cake and the marauding hordes and Madame Guillotine.

Unfortunately it's not available on their website anymore, but I paid a whopping $68 for it. Almost the best bargain of the trip I think.

Kitty

London calling...

London is totally en vogue at the moment. Between the Jubilee, the Olympics and the wedding of the century, it's the place to be this year. I've always had a soft spot for it but this year it's going to be just fabulous.  I can't wait.

When I saw this the other day, I was so excited. I love the map of London sketched across the chiffon of this gorgeous Jigsaw scarf. It makes me so excited for our upcoming trip to Europe. I loved this so much I couldn't help buy it. It wasn't even on sale. Go figure. In store I think it even comes in different colours - blue, maybe, and an emerald green I think. But I only had eyes for the purple. It's not overly big or heavy which means it nice and neat under a shirt collar or draped elegantly over a simple dress.

Now, if they would only do a map of Paris scarf, I would be totally content. Well, I would love it, that's for sure.

The London Map scarf is $89 at Jigsaw.

Kitty xx

Peanut obessed.

At the moment I appear to be obsessed with peanuts. Earlier this week I made a divine peanut butter brownie from a Lorraine Pascale recipe. It was heaven. The richness of the chocolate balanced well with the saltiness of the peanut butter.

Still craving the salty sweet goodness, I wanted to make some peanut butter cookies, especially given Wednesday was National Peanut Butter Cookie day in the US.  I have to say these are fantastically good. I can eat cookie after cookie. Delicious.

Peanut Butter Cookies, recipe from Taste.com.au.

125g butter or margarine, at room temperature
275g (1 cup) crunchy peanut butter
200g (1 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
1 egg
260g (1 3/4 cups) plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
110g (3/4 cup) unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped (I replaced the peanuts with Reece's peanut butter chips)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper.

Beat the butter or margarine and peanut butter in a mixing bowl with electric beaters until creamy. Add the brown sugar and beat until pale. Add the egg and beat until combined. Sift the plain flour and baking powder together. Use a wooden spoon to mix the dry ingredients and peanut butter chips or peanuts into the peanut butter mixture.

Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place about 4cm apart on prepared baking tray. Flatten each ball to about 5cm in diameter and 1 cm thick. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Stand on baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Store in an airtight jar for up to 1 week.

Makes 40.

I baked  half of these and froze the rest of the dough for later peanutty treats. Spectacular.

Kitty

Korres Wild Rose + Vitamin C Advanced Brightening Sleeping Facial

Twice in one week with the skincare reviews! What is the world coming to??

In all fairness I couldn't not blog about this product. It's a new release in the US and not yet available in Australia but it's fabulous and I want you to all know about it.

The Korres Wild Rose + Vitamin C Advanced Brightening Sleeping Facial is exactly what it says: It's a facial cream you rub on to your face before you go to bed and works overnight to brighten and refine your skin. It addresses uneven skintone and dark spots while improving skin quality for a brighter, more luminous complexion.

From the Sephora website:

This overnight facial-in-a-jar is a breakthrough in beauty sleep. More than a mask, more than a night cream, it contains the Korres Phos Compound, a proprietary blend including a brightening agent and stabilized vitamin C. Day after day, week after week, uneven tone and dark spots will continuously improve. After only 14 days you'll see skin that's brighter, more even-toned, and exceptionally radiant.

At $48 plus tax, it was kind of pricey to test out on a whim (with no recommendations because it was so new) but if it did what it said on the packet then it truly was an absolute bargain. I've spent a lot more on failed products in the past, so I purchased it, packed it and flew home.

A few days after I got home I decided to try it out. When I opened the box there were no instructions for use or directions on quantites which was kind of annoying, and nothing on the box either. Given it was 11pm I wasn't about to go searching for them on the internet. So I just smoothed a bit on my skin, switched off the light and went to sleep.

The next morning my skin did, indeed, feel brighter. It was softer and more refined. All done while I was sleeping. In short: it actually did what it said on the packet. Big thumbs up from Miss Kitty!

For the detail nerds among us, here's why.

The ingredients list is long and varied (as with many things we all use), but according to Korres, the ones to point out are:

• Wild Rose Oil: Evens skin tone and repairs fine lines; moisturizes, heals and softens skin while forming a protective layer to improve its texture. This is a key ingredient in many of Korres' keystone products and it works for many different types of skin.
• Stabilized Vitamin C: Helps to minimize the appearance of skin discolorations. It also plays a vital role in the production of collagen.
• Imperata Cylindrica Root Extract: Provides continuous moisturization by regulating the moisture equilibrium of the skin which helps the other active ingredients erm... activate.
• 15% Rose Water: Provides weightless hydration and makes it smell very pretty.

The one thing you'll notice straight up is it's heavily fragranced. It smells of blossom and springtime. It's more perfumed that creams that I usually like to use but it's not unbearable. A lot of people say they like the perfume. You only need a tiny amount - a little goes a long way.

Having used this for more than a week now, I think it's safe to say that I really like this product - when combined with my Clarisonic for a deep clean, an intense hydration product is absolutely essential. Subsequently, after some research, I have discovered I need to use it like a serum - in between my cleanse and moisturising stages. Once I started to use moisturiser with it, I saw an even bigger difference - my skin is smooth and radiant (despite the loss of sleep an 8 month old affords you). It's so good I have stopped wearing tinted moisturiser.

Let me repeat that: I no longer wear tinted moisturiser every day. On the odd occasion, I still slap it on, but my skin is now so good I don't need it - just a bit of concealer and some powder. If that's not a ringing endorsement I don't know what is.

Korres products are available from Kit Cosmetics in Australia. Hopefully this amazing product will be available here soon!

Kitty

Chilly winter and coats

One of the disadvantages of travelling to Las Vegas in Summer is the lack of winter clothing available in stores. Even at outlets. It doesn't really get cold in Vegas, so even remaindered stock is too light for a Sydney cold snap. It means I usually have to wait for months before I can wear my US haul at home.

I have been looking for a coat for our trip to Europe for a few months now. We'll be in Chamonix in September and Paris in October (as well as London with it's variable weather at the end of September). I'll need something relatively warm. I thought I was on to a winner at David Lawrence a while ago but when I tried the coat on, I just didn't feel it. I haven't seen anything I liked anywhere else and I wasn't even really looking in the US. And then I walked into Elie Tahari.

I have never really thought of him as a designer for me. I usually think of his clothes as more red carpet or cocktail frocks. That's not really my life at the moment (unfortunately) so imagine my surprise and delight when I walked into the store to find racks of coats! Beautiful, warm, fabulous coats! A wealth of options - well more than one. That was a start.

After much trying on (well, three minutes - that's a luxury for this mum) I settled on the Clarissa coat - reduced down to a very respectable $150 from $698. Bargain I say! I'm so glad I walked in to the store. I also managed to find a lovely metallic silver cardigan for $90. Double hurrah!

We are off to Melbourne in a few weeks - I can't wait to give it a test run!

Kitty

Gorgeous Giggling G.

A few days after we got back from our trip, we had a photo shoot with Georgie. The Lovely Karen Coulstock took the photos again and we couldn't be happier with the sneak peak we had on facebook and her blog.

She is such a cutie pie. I am so glad we decided to invest in getting family photography done - it's worth every penny. Such beautiful memories.

 

Thanks once again Karen. We had so much fun!

Kitty

So I bought a Clarisonic...

Trust me, I'm not about to turn into a beauty blogger extraordinaire (I'll leave that to the wonderful girls at Cclarebear) but while I was overseas I picked up a few new gadgets and items that - ok, I'll say it - I love enough to want to marry. Life changing.

My Clarisonic Mia is one of those items. I wasn't convinced at the beginning but after speaking to a few people (including two of the most persuasive salesgirls ever at Neiman Marcus) I decided to give it a whirl. And I am hooked. It has changed the texture of my skin - it's now about fifty times softer and the pores are far smaller. I think it's taken years off me (or maybe my eyesight is just getting a lot worse). But whatever. I love it.

From the Clarisonic website:

Traditional methods of cleansing don’t get your skin as clean as you’d think. Fortunately, the lead inventor of Sonicare discovered a breakthrough in how we cleanse. Using Sonic Technology, Clarisonic’s patented micro-massage motion works within skin’s natural elasticity to gently remove the impurities traditional methods leave behind- leaving skin softer, smoother and more beautiful.

• Cleanses 6x better than with your hands alone in just 60 seconds
• Works with skin, not against it, to gently massage away impurities trapped within pores
• Prepares skin for better absorption of creams, serums and moisturizers
• Gentle enough to use 2x a day

Now, I don't know if it cleans 6 times better than traditional methods or not (and lets not start the debate about sonic being sound related and nothing to do with speed or vibration), but my skin definitely feels an awful lot cleaner. The texture is finer and the area where I had small hormonal bumps along my jawline is now smooth and clear again. It felt cleaner almost instantly, looked better within a matter of days and now I have been using it for about 4 weeks and the difference is clear - I wouldn't be without it.

It's a simple 60 second activity that I do once a day in the shower at the end of the day. As a busy mum, I don't have a lot of time for masques and peels but this is one thing I feel I can do that is fast and easy and WORKS. Well, for me anyway. I've used it with a couple of different cleansers and so far the one I have found that works the best (or gives the deepest clean) was my Eve Lom cleanser. Squeaky. Fabulous. And cleaner skin means your daily ritual works better - your moisturiser, for one, is absorbed better by your skin and does it's job better when it doesn't have to fight through so much grime.

The Clarisonic Mia 2 certainly gets a big thumbs up from Miss Kitty. And if you need further persuasion, it's endorsed by our fearless leader, Faux Fuschia!

They come in a couple of different variations - I bought the Mia 2 because it was great for traveling. And it came in pink. Gosh I'm easy to please. You can also buy different brush heads to suit your skin. Brush heads need to be replaced 3 monthly. Clarisonics are available in Australia from David Jones and Myer, or online from Ry or Adorebeauty.

Kitty

Back!

Hi everyone,

Apologies for Radio Silence. We have been frantic since we got back and my computer decided to need some serious work which meant I was offline for almost a week. But it's now fixed and I can get on with things!

Stay tuned for updates from our trip and goings on since...

Kitty xx