splendor is the night

What with working full-time and trying to finish my thesis I am afraid I barely have time for this little space right now. So this is really just a post to say hi! I am alive and well. And ahm, here is a little of what I bought recently. That's it, that's the post. À bientôt.

1. Nothing annoys me more than handbag-sized wallets. Nothing! So I have been on the lookout for a small, tidy one that still fits everything & has different storage compartments. This Max Mara one fit the bill.
2. A fellow tea-drinking friend recommended the Kusmi Detox Tea, so I gave into the hype & bought one to sample. Though the price is a little overboard for tea, in my opinion.
3. So gah-gah over The Great Gatsby at the moment. Somebody needs to invite me to a Gatsby Party á la Baz Luhrmann pronto. As a result, bought Tender is the Night on a whim the other day in the vain hope of transferring the extravagance & decadence of Fitzgerald's world to real life (if only in my head). As always with Fitzgerald - the writing is stunning, the plot barely there.
4. Chloé perfume & lotion for the soul.

it's all good, by gwyneth paltrow

There has been a lot of criticism re: this book - some of it (namely that it would cost a fortune to eat like this daily) is definitely substantiated. Plus, some of the ingredients might be a bit hard to find, especially if you live in a country without a Whole Foods. It does, however, feature some really nice recipes & photography.  I haven't tried any of the recipes yet (a bit incapacitated from a surgery at the moment), but from what I've seen the recipes really do seem to hit that "hearty, but healthy"-type. 

All the recipes are marked with labels (see: protein packed, elimination diet etc.) & at the end there are weekly meal plans for all different kinds of diets (body building, detoxing etc.)

Has anyone else gotten this book & tried any recipes yet? If so, please do let me know which ones & if you would recommend making them. Maybe I'll put up a real review once I've gotten around to trying some recipes myself.

"We've intellectualized food when it's not a mental exercise. It's a sensorial experience. Food comes from the earth. So do we. The tastes, textures, smells, and colors of food are reminders of our visceral connection to the essential life energy of the earth. Food also keeps us aware that we're partners in a process that's much larger than ourselves."

Foreword, by Dr. Habib Sadeghi