Secret Christmas Ingredient 2012

I just found this! Cointreau cuisine... I checked it was still fully boozey before purchasing! It's amazing, smells so festive and can be used to make anything seasonal from chocolate mousse, puddings and yes cocktails. Spray it on your tongue when you get stresse...

The Social Club

'Tis the season!! And what better excuse to whip up a cocktail for your party guests...

Let's talk about banks, baby!

I promised to tell you why I ended up having a jaunt to London the other day. It was for a very important cause as my friend has written a book! So I thought it would be most sensible if I joined up with her to help celebrat...

Tapas tasting

I was in London the other week and my fabulous mates brought me to a little tapas restaurant called Barrica on Goodge Street they thought I would enjoy. I was a bit puzzled at first why we traipsed up through Covent Garden, Soho and Charlotte Street from Embankment and when I enquired they said "because we think you'll love it." *sigh* I love it when my mates know me better than I do. A glass of...

Crazy Mama

After a bit of a hiatus languishing in a heady state of depression, I am now at least conscious enough to string a sentence together and motivated enough to sit up at an angle conducive to typing. Hello there! I apologise for my absence, I will make efforts to keep up with my blog for my lovely readers and my own sanity. Enough of my cloud of depression, I will elaborate on that another day, for...

Deal with your Debts

After spending WAY too much on a heady but frivolous Summer, I have crashed back to earth with a bump and a bollocking from GF. I freaking HATE it when he gets on his high horse and even more so if he's right! It is not, thankfully, a common occurrence!...

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Over the last year I've been spending significant amounts of time away from GF due to work commitments, family trips and a general need to get away from each other and i must agree with the old adage, absence does make the heart grow fonder. Not only do I miss my significant other when we're apart, I also have a greater appreciation for his contribution to the running of the house, in dealing with...

He's Just Not That Into You

Wow, I am sick of women today! And I love women normally, I'm a girls girl. What drives me stark raving bonkers, incandescent with rage however, is when cool, clever women become naval gazing, whiney, needy messes over unworthy men. Don't get me wrong, I like men too (a lot!)......

Vanity Project 1: I'm sexy and I know it!

I am hot! Well I think I am. Ok, I used to be and in some lights (ie. candle) I think I still am... Maybe, on a good day, when feeling good about myself and wearing spanx... Sorry for the ramble rant. The crux of my issue is age, pure and simple. Vital, youthful beauty gets us through our troubling teens and turbulent twenties. We glide through the social sphere with ease, turning heads and attracting...

Eye Make Up - Part 2

Sorry, it's taken a while I know. What can I say? It wasn't the inspiration for this post that was lacking, it was the photography. Notoriously difficult to find unless advertising a brothel!...

More Highstreet Picks

Yes, I am still shopping crazy on the highstreet. So manic is my lust that I haven't got time for a witty intro... the sales are calling!! I just have time to highlight a few of the new season goodies from Zara. Amazing colours, prints and handbags to die for!...

Topshop Treats

Dearest Sir Philip Green, PLEASE bring Topshop to France, I implore you! I’m a sucker for Topshop, so when I travel home to England's green and pleasant lands, I have to find the nearest grey city where I MUST immediately shop till I drop. I love UK fashion and miss loads of clothing stores and brands, but Topshop is just a fabulous store and online shopping doesn't give me the same high as trawling...

Gertie's Guide to Gold

Is it me or are women getting more and more tanned every year? This is a rhetorial question, it’s a fact, they are! The all year round tan is in fashion and the fake-baked fashionista sista’s are making everyone else look positively goth-like. We all know that a natural looking fake tan isn't necessarily an easy look to pull off and it can take an enormous amount of time and dedication. It is in fact...

Polished Peplum

Peplum is one of the more difficult SS12 trends to put into practice. It's not flattering, it's very easy to look like a Miss Marple extra and it gets crushed on public transport. But don't despair... It can be done. Here are 3 different peplummy looks for you to sink your teeth into. Get experimentin...

Gertie's Wedding Guest Fashion Guide

I have a confession...I’m currently obsessed with fashion blogs. I know, I know, I can hear you all saying, ”Gertie, they’ve been around for ages”. But they haven’t for me because I’ve been in the midst of baby-breeding years where (1) looking in the mirror was forbidden, and (2) shopping for clothes was effectively ruled out as I couldn’t try anything on (see point 1)....

Gertie's School Gate Saga

Adventures of a Middle-Aged Matron's article on school gate fashion was not only very chic and stylish but it was also honest and funny and it inspired this post. As a prelude I have to talk about French women. They may not be the World's best dressed anymore and they do have an unhealthy relationship with burgundy lip liner (without lipstick filler) and hooker boots, but they are undoubtedly THE...

The Best of Bling

So even if our love don't cost a thing, we always need a bit of bling! It's London Jewellery Week and here are my favourite pieces....

Hangover Hell

I love the Grand Prix weekend but I don't deal well with the hangover I am inevitably left with. This year, I decided to trial hangover cures to assess which ones really work, and which are old wives' tales....

Savvy Shopping on the Net

Living in the South of France has its perks with 300 days of sunshine and glamour constantly on parade in the form of sports cars, yachts and Jimmy Choos. And of course there are the shops, in one small strip alone there’s Cartier, Fred, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Celine, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Akris (favored by Princess Charlene of Monaco). And whilst I’d love to imagine me breezing in and out...

Gertie's Guide to Glamping

Is Laurie Lee's early written work "Cider with Rosie" your husband's favourite read? No matter, I will describe to you this... Lush green fields rolling away from you as far as the eye can see, badly potholed dirt roads, beautiful ramshackle buildings, churches quaint enough to be described by Austen, plotted walking trails isolated and wild enough for Heathcliffe's Cathy, coal-fueled barbecues roasting...

Healthy Helpers: Energy-Boost Snacks

Apologies for my absence as of late. St Tropez, Somerset, London and life have been a bit hectic lately! So much traveling has put me off my balance slightly and I'm noticing a huge dive in my blood sugar levels in the late afternoon. So I glibly grab for a glass of rosé and a handful (or three) of pretzels. Fine for the short-term but this can't go o...

Stay Sane During School Holidays... Hopefully!

My youngest child has recently changed from a happy smiley baby into a screaming, shouting ball of rage and frustration. Horrible 3's... Even worse, in my opinion, than Terrible 2's! This metamorphosis has come along just in time for the school holidays (oh joy!) and I am already stockpiling my essential self-medicating tool, wine. It is the only way I will survive the next two weeks. This however,...

Work Stress Sucks

Every mother is a working mother, whether they look after their kids 100% of the time, work from an office, or work from home. Everybody has their own situations and reality going on and each is different. I read a post by Scary Mommy the other day that resonated: ”...pitting stay-at-home-mothers against working moms gains us nothing...So here’s an idea: let’s support one another’s decisions. As...

Eye Make Up Tutorial - Part 1

Sorry this guide is so delayed. I am passionate about eye make up and I wanted to get it right. Good eye make up will change your life! And it's really not difficult if you know what you're doing so let's get started. I'm going to split this up into two sections, with two looks for daytime in this one and two sexy evening looks in the next. A quick note on colors and skin tone before we start: Porcelain...

Seasonal Spring Produce

Happy Easter! I love this time of year (sorry if I am making you puke with my positivity!) because I can literally feel the blanket of Winter depression lifting. The sun warms and soothes pale and pasty skin, the winter knits can be stored away and the food markets come alive with the vibrantly coloured fruit and vegetables now in season. It inspired me to cook up a lunch for a girlfriend and I decided...

Friend Culling

Today was going to be a good day. After last night's fabulous girls night and a much needed laugh and one too many glasses of white wine, I woke up to Gentleman Friend telling me that he would do the school run and that I could "take it easy" today - it just doesn't get any better than that! I ran to get some essential supplies from around the house (iPad, cup of tea, toasted hot cross bun and all...

Good Mood Food

I am a firm believer in the theory that we are what we eat and that food can nourish not just our bodies but our emotional well being as well. Different foods have different effects on us and they have the ability to change our internal chemical balance, improve sleep, concentration and libido. Pretty cool really, if you know which foods do what and why....

Spring has Sprung: Time for Action

Spring has sprung, at least on the Cote d'Azur but that is, admittedly, why I live here....

Rave Brunching

The new craze to hit New York, Rave Brunching, is my idea of heaven! Swanky venues including the exclusive Plaza Hotel host raves that begin at noon, have you dancing by tea time and tucked up in bed by 10pm... How very civilised! If you would love to rave away the sunlit hours but you don't have the funds to fly to NY to sip Krug and nibble on delightfully delicate caviar canapés, never fea...

5 Fitness Technology Tips

I don’t know about you, but as the temperatures outside start to rise, I start thinking of shedding those bulky sweaters and even start visioning myself in *Gulp* a bikini. And trust me, at the moment these visions are more like nightmares about the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man! But all is not los...

To crush or not to crush?

To crush or not to crush? THAT is the question... Well no, it's not actually a question is it? It's an inevitable reality. It doesn't matter how happy we are, how strong our relationship or how long it has endured, we will naturally develop crushes on people other than our spouses along the way. And is it such a bad thin...

Gertie’s Gentle Guide to Controlling Stress

Ah, the wonders of the modern age! Think of all the marvelous inventions over the past 100 years that have made our everyday lives so much easier. There’s the car, the washing machine, the Hoover, the dishwasher, the telephone and the iPad. I mean, imagine if we actually had to walk, scrub clothes in a tub, sweep, hand-write letters AND there was no method in which to immediately communicate to all...

Don't Make-do: 5 Marvelous Makeup Tips

A lot of women I meet don't use makeup. Not because they wouldn't love to glam up, but because they don't know which products to use where and how, and which colours suit their skin tones. There is also the real worry that you can over apply, creating looks akin to clowns and drag act...

5 Fab Tips for Frugal Food Shopping

It might sound odd coming from somebody living in an enchanted place like Monaco, but I do make it a habit to buy my groceries on a strict budget. Life here is not all about Ferrari’s, Fred and Fendi; there’s working-class girls in Monaco too (and no, I am not talking about ladies of the night)....

Be mine....

One Valentine’s Day, my first husband gave me the gift of a gym ball. That occurrence was quickly followed by my first divorc...

Let's Talk About Sex (Selection)

Do you know to have sex when you want to conceive a girl and when for a boy? When you ovulate and for how long? Which rules are scientific fact and which fiction? No? I didn't either until I met up with a good friend of mine last week. She needed a good rant over a bottle of Pinot Grigio or two and I was happy to oblig...

The Flu

Recently I got the flu for the first time. Naturally I woke in a panic, called my gentleman friend (from bed, he was downstairs in the kitchen) and demanded his presence in my bed chamber. “I have throat cancer”, I announced, trying to elicit as much sympathy as I could muster. To my surprise he wasn't convinced by this diagnosis and in a typically logical and irritatingly male fashion...

Easy Bread Recipes (for the Newbie)

I don’t want you to have an image of me as the sort of woman who dons a tidy white apron everyday breezily removing different shaped, freshly-baked loaves of home-baked bread from the oven whilst humming serenely. The vision is more of me in jeans and an everyday sweater rolled up to the elbows, trying desperately not to get myself covered in flour to save on the washing; and often sweari...

Easy-Peasey Weight Loss Guide (for the Busy Woman)

Are you a woman of means, without responsibilities and with the time and natural self motivation to hit the gym for two hours a day before bathing in asses milk and eating only mango and lobster? No? Good! Please read on....

Beating those January Blues

Oh January... THE most depressing month of the year. The month you realise just how much debt you racked up at Christmas, how many mince pies passed your lips and stuck to your thighs and exactly how difficult it is to pass an evening without a glass of red wine to calm your paranoid booze blues....