A Flowery Date

I was going through my jewellery today and as I was trying to find the pair of earrings I wanted to wear I came across this lovely pink flowers that my sister had made for herself. Well her biggest mistake was that she chose to make them in my favourite colour. Needless to say that when I saw them I confiscated them. Till now I am not sure if she happily gave them away, as I love 'forgetting' her jewellery in my suitcases so me having them was not really her choice, or if the compliments she gets when I wear them compensate for the loss of her creations. 

Generally felt is a very hip material but I wouln't wear it with more posh and evening outfits. I mostly combine it with summer dresses or jeans and tshirts. I think my sister's most impressive felt creation is the 'bear couple' pair of earrings. Despite their simplicity these little bears are very sweet and so romantic that they keep stealing people's hearts! My sister has managed to keep them not cause I don't like them enough but because they don't match my style. 

Felt is a very common material in jewellery making nowadays and you can find them in most stores. Like feathered earrings few are worth checking out. I think my favourite felt creations, apart from my sisters, are Michele Friedman's jewellery. I love the designs and the way she is using felt to give colour to the metals. I haven't purchased any of her creations yet only because I haven't decided which one to get. 

An example of the most common use of felt is the one below by LauMara. Simple, colourful and geometric designs that for don't really have to say anything new. 

I know that my sister's jewellery are not as sophisticated as Michele Friedman's but not only they are more impressive than the common ones what I really love about them is how her imagination gives life to the jewellery and provides a story for every design.

If you want more information about her designs or maybe order a piece or two you are more than welcomed to email me at kurkubinii@gmail.com

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Feathered Earrings made with Sisterly Love

There is so much choice in jewellery nowadays which as a fashion 'guru' I really appreciate. Nevertheless after so many years of being a professional shopper I still don't believe that the variety can cover my imagination. I grew up with a very creative and artistic mother that loved handicrafts so I learned to use my imagination and create my own pieces and not rely on what you find in stores. While she was making her own Christmas and Easter decorations I was experimenting with the materials she was using to make my own. As a girly girl I experimented in making bracelets and other jewellery pieces. I was lucky I was given with the materials and tools to do that but then again the same luck has made me very picky.
There is a huge difference between experimenting with available materials when you are a teenager and making really nice decorations or jewellery pieces that you can use as fashion statements in your adult years. Maybe you can get away with decorations but with jewellery for sure not! At one point my sister showed me some jewellery she had made and I was impressed! She was really good! The materials she is using are a combination of precious stones and cheaper elements giving an expensive feel to her creations. Her designs are very edgy, playful and fashion forward. She has definitely something to say about fashion through her work. I think what thrilled me the most was that I had someone very close to me that could turn all my crazy jewellery ideas into one of a kind creations! I am so selfish I know!
I love her pieces and even though she sells some of them I'd rather she kept everything for me and her! OK she is also allowed to make jewellery as presents for friends but only for special occasions!

This pair of earrings has been one of my favourites! She has made it with different colours of feathers and even though fuschia is my favourite colour, turqoise being my second favourite has made me fall in love with this specific combination. I find feathers very sexy and edgy but I think the way they are used in jewellery is very simplistic. I was impressed by my sister's idea to add the artistic wooden piece and I believe it works perfectly.

The use of feathers in earrings that I find in stores over and over again is the following, as currently featured in accessorize and you can buy for 8 pounds,

and is definitely not good enough for me!

Then you can find the very common combination of feathers and chains, this one is from etsy and the shop LoveAtFirsthBlush costing 24.17 pounds,

still not good and as I would say a bit traaaaaagic! 

Then a bit more sophisticated and geometric use of feathers, as found in etsy by wildspirits

which I have to admit is a bit better :)
For me even swarovski hasn't managed to perfect the use of feathers in their jewellery, as you can see in the photo below, so I still believe that I am impartial when I say that my sister's designs rock :)
If you think you can challenge me please feel free to reply and share designs you have found!
I promise to keep posting more of her jewellery!

If you want more information about her designs or maybe order a piece or two you are more than welcomed to email me at kurkubinii@gmail.com

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Scones with Love

I met a close friend of mine for lunch yesterday who is also a dedicated baker like me. While we were chatting I mentioned that one of the reasons why I love baking is that it reminds me that the natural world has its own perfect timing. We live in a world where 'time is money' and we end up pushing ourselves to an unnatural lifestyle. The natural processes in baking, waiting for the dough to rise, beating the eggs for a while until you get the perfect fluffy meringue, having to boil the water with the sugar for a while until it gets the right consistency to turn into caramel, remind me that you can't rush life and you have to be patient for nature to take its course. I shared with her that for me baking is the best break from the chaotic daily lifestyle and stress and her response was that she feels the same.
The conversation reminded me of an article I had read in BBC with the title Can Baking Make You Happier? .
Here is a quote from the article 'Baking helps lift my depression. It can't cure it but it helps,' Says John Whaite, last year's winner of the Great British Bake Off.
It is amazing to think how therapeutic baking and cooking can be. From stress to depression relief.
From my friends and family I can always tell who bakes and cooks with love as their food tastes so much better. Over the summer we had visited a close family friend that is an amazing cook and baker. Her cakes, muffins, pastries are very original and delicious! All of them home made but you think you got them from the most expensive bakery. As she was treating us with some of her goods I complimented her by saying that her food is always so delicious and I can feel that this is cause they are baked and cooked with love. My comment touched her and she almost cried. She replied that for her baking and cooking is the way through which she expresses her love to her loved ones.
I wish people nowadays took more time in the kitchen as not only it would help them regain a more relaxed approach to life but it would also improve the relationships with the people around them.

So yeah I had been craving scones lately so I decided to bake some instead of buying ready made ones from the store. I looked into many recipes and I noticed that they are very similiar to each other. I combined a few and took inspiration from a recipe by Lesley Waters in which she added ground almonds to the ingredients. I love almonds and I am happy I tried it!
Here is the recipe I came with:

Ingredients:
200 g self raising flour
50 g ground almonds
50 g butter
30 g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
100 ml milk
1 beaten egg
pinch of salt

We start by combining the liquid ingredients, milk and egg, in a bowl. In a separate bigger bowl we mix the dry ingredients, flour, almonds, sugar, baking powder and salt. We add the butter in the dry ingredients and we rub the butter with the flour until we get breadcrumbs. Initially we pour 1/3 of the liquid ingredients working the dough until the liquids get absorbed. Continue by adding the liquid mix slowly slowly until you get a soft workable dough. You might end up not using the whole quantity of the liquid mix.
Leave the dough to rest for half an hour.
Roll the dough until it's 1.5 - 2 cm thick and cut with a cookie cutter. Grease a baking tray or cover it with baking paper and place the scones on the baking tray. You can sprinkle some flour on top of the scones.
We bake for around 10 minutes at 220 C in a preheated oven.

We serve with clotted cream and jam!

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String and Sparkle

Diamonds are a girl's best friend and so is everything that sparkles. Don't get me wrong I appreciate expensive jewellery and of course love diamonds but there is so much good variety in cheaper versions of sparkle. The new trend is the combination of organic materials such as strings and rope with metal, gems and swarovski crystals. One of my favourite brands establishing this trend is Jolita. From their current collection my two favourite necklace pieces are the 

Bacchus Cameo and Flower Statement Necklace and the

Avignon Necklace. Their prices are a big high but they are definitely good for at least getting inspiration. 

One of my friends surprised me a few weeks back with the necklace in the main photo of this post and it reminded me the of  Jolita jewellery. She got it in Singapore and post it to me so unfortunately I can't offer any link for it. Needless to say that I loved it!! I have seen similar ones in accessorize and as I was browsing online I found a few examples of this trend 

by Shourouk Yildiz in asos 

and this 

Tom Binns in net-a-portet. 

A much cheaper version is this Cindy Collar from baublebar.

What I love about them is that they go perfectly well with jeans and plain tops as they add a hip and modern character to a very classic style. 

So girls yes sometimes it is fine to keep diamonds in the safe and wear simpler versions of sparkle without feeling guilty! But to be safe let's just keep that a secret and let men still believe that only real diamonds can do the trick ;)

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Gold Geometry of Stradivarius

For some looks simplicity is the key word. I am a big fan for everything bling bling and shiny but once in a while I love symmetry and geometry in jewellery.

I was shopping with my sister and friends in Thessaloniki, Greece when I came across these bracelets and rings. They are not very expensive and they are not real gold but I loved them. Easy to wear on a daily basis with top and jeans, skirts, dresses for either morning, afternoon or evening looks. I had to have them! And guess what… My sister got them for me! She is a jewellery maker herself (I am planning to post some of her designs in the future) and she is not easy to buy pieces from stores as she prefers to make them herself. Well these ones she loved too and decided they were worth getting especially in the price they were sold so she got them for me! The only catch was that she kept the third bracelet that is missing from the photo for herself. Oh well! I don’t mind sharing these little treasures 

So far I have combined them with other gold jewellery and also wore them individually. Despite their simplicity they have caught the eye of friends and strangers.

They are from Stradivarius and you can either find the rings online here or at a store near you for the price of only 4.95 euros! Unfortunately I couldn’t find the bracelets online so hopefully if you really like them you can still find them in store.

I love Stradivarius clothes, shoes and accessories and I find the brand perfect for gifts. Good quality and hip design at a very low cost. I also wanted to buy these wedges but unfortunatelly they didn’t have my size.

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Upside Down Pizzas ~ Ανάποδη Πίτσα

We all love pizza and we have eaten it for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack. So much variety in toppings and doughs we are spoiled with choice! Of course it originates in Italy and according to Wikipedia ‘On 9 December 2009, the European Union, upon Italian request, granted Traditional Specialty Guaranteed (TSG)  safeguard to traditional Neapolitan pizza, in particular to “Margherita” and “Marinara”. The European Union enacted a protected designation of origin system in the 1990s’. Moreover they are identifying 12 formal national variations of pizza.

When I thought I had seen it all my aunt introduced me to the upside down pizza. It’s an interesting variation and to be honest have no clue who thought about it or how and where it originated. In a bowl you start by layering all the ingredients of pizza in the reverse order than the usual pizza recipe. As a type it’s more filling and the dough is fluffier. Again toppings are a matter of personal choice.

For this recipe we need small ovenproof bowls. We have to bare in mind that each pizza is an individual serving so the size of each bowl has to accommodate one person. 

Ingredients:
For the pizza dough
400g strong flour
100g Tipo 00 flour
350ml lukewarm water
7g of dried yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
4 tbsp olive oil
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano, basil, thyme

For the topping
15 slices of cheddar cheese (or cheese of our preference)
1 can of chopped tomatoes (or 5 tomatoes)
250g mushrooms
3 peppers
250g chicken or sausage
Salt, pepper and olive oil

We start by preparing the dough. In a bowl we mix the flour, herbs and salt and make a hole in the middle. In a cup we mix the lukewarm water and dried yeast with the sugar. It is important the water to be in the right temperature as if it is too hot the yeast will get burned and if it is not warm enough it will not rise. We can test that the water has the right temperature by putting our finger in it. Our finger has to tolerate the temperature of the water. We let it rise for a bit and then add the oil. We pour the liquids in the flour well and we starting working the dough. If necessary we can add more flour until we get a smooth and elastic dough. We keep it in the bowl, cover it with a napkin or kitchen towel and let it rise until it doubles in size.

While the dough is resting in a pan we saute the mushrooms, peppers and chicken sprinkling pepper and salt until all the ingredients get cooked. In another pan we prepare the tomato sauce. We grate the tomatoes and cook them with basil in an oiled pan until we get a sauce.

We cover the insides of the bowls with olive oil. We start layering the toppings of our pizza in the reverse order of a normal pizza. We cover the surface of the bowl with the cheese slices. We make sure there are no gaps as the cheese will prevent our pizzas from sticking to the bowls. The second layer is our meat topping and the third our tomato sauce. Once the dough has doubled in size we work it a bit more and we divide it in 8 smaller balls. Shaping each ball into a pizza base we use it to seal the bowls. Before we bake our pizzas in the oven we let them stand for a while until the dough rises a bit further.

We bake in a preheated oven at 250 C for about 20 minutes or until our dough has a golden colour.

To serve we turn our bowl upside down on a plate.

Good luck! I hope you enjoy it! 

Variation: For our topping we can use any ingredients we want.

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University of Warwick by Night

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Swimming by Lightnings

Photo taken at Agia Triada beach, Greece

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