Collection of ‘Things’ from October 2025

In detail

favourite read

GWYNETH: AMY ODELL

This was a surprising biography to me because I was surprised I enjoyed reading it as much as I did – I really hung onto every word.

I was neutral on Paltrow as I mentioned, but my impressions of her were that she was very well dressed, a bit bland, no real scandals associated with her except for her Goop business that started spouting all sorts of health nonsense. In fact, it was a completely unrelated book by Timothy Caulfield that I absolutely loved reading called The Science of Celebrity – Is Gwyneth Paltrow wrong about everything – was what made me curious about reading up more on her, to be frank.

I think most of the credit to make her interesting, has to go to Odell. She is a gifted, superlative writer and I am eager to read her other works now.

At any rate, learning how this rather unremarkable (to me) actress became so famous, and more famous for things other than acting in my honest opinion, is fascinating, and how she built her business even though.. it hasn’t really been turning profits and seems to be more of a hobby, frankly. Anyway, great read. Now I am invested in her, and in her outfits.

TOPIC obsession

Dark academia

As in.. the design style. I can’t seem to lock into any one theme. I just .. like them all depending on my mood.

I love seeing stark, white oak floors and kitchens, but then my office is a huge gallery wall of inspiring, colourful artwork and flowers, packed to the brim with interesting pieces everywhere you turn, and soft glow-y lights.

My office vibe is currently kind of like this, but without all the books, pink walls, a lot of fake flowers and globe lights..

Then I stumble onto dark academia and now I want to paint my room a deep dark forest green or navy blue and cover it in books. It is ridiculous, honestly!

Here are all of the beautiful dark academia inspirations I came across and am currently drooling over.

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HOW COSY DO THEY LOOK!

Maybe it is because I am really into these 3 major things:

Being surrounded by books but alas.. I will never own many if any books because it makes moving so difficult and we are not people who have found our “forever homes” yet.
Soft cosy couches in dark, inviting reading nooks .. I am an avid reader so it stands to reason and because I can’t help myself and I want to be in a cocoon.
Soft glow-y lights .. nothing harsh

I currently have this kind of set up actually, just minus the books. I think I am just wondering how I can get books into my space, or the feel of them.. without actually having to own any books. LOL

I would also like to highlight Alexandra Gater’s Dark Academia office that may or may not have sparked this obsession of mine.

And here is another designer talking about how to decorate in this style:

And of course, someone who says it doesn’t need to be so dark and gloomy as per the inspo images…

FAVOURITE WATCH

‘The perfect couple’

It is a mystery!!! A short mini series, with one of the most amazing actresses ever to gift our screens – Nicole Kidman.

Toss in the fact that they’re rich, famous, and beautifully outfitted and you have a winning combo of TV catnip to draw me in. It was well done, I must say.

OOTD INSPO

Layers of neutrals

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This is so smart, I need to start layering my own button-up shirts.

White underneath, with a striped blue shirt peeking out on top, and then another jacket over top of it that may or may not pick up on the blue underneath.

I could even add a fourth layer for winter, and put a turtleneck in black or navy blue underneath the white shirt…

I love it all.

Surprising discovery

Who knew deep sleep was so easy?

All it takes is this exact moulded eye mask and these exact soft foam earplugs. Now I sleep so deeply because I can’t hear my partner snoring, moving around, waking up or what have you, and the light doesn’t hit my eyes either.

An Overhyped purchase

Loop earplugs

These Loop ear plugs are seriously not worth the hype.

I thought they would be excellent to wear while sleeping or working to muffle the noise and to be able to concentrate, but they are expensive, and the ones that do a much better job of muffling sound but not drowning it out 100% are these cheapie foam earplugs. These ones are just cuter looking but not much else.

THE ‘MYTH’ OF TRADWIVES

Women have always worked…

“Tradwives” are women who have always worked; they just haven’t worked in the public sphere, only in the private, so the patricharchy has been (for obvious reasons) downplaying, romanticizing and glossing over women who exclusively stayed in the home.

This article from Prospect entitled “Why tradwives aren’t trad” talks about how it isn’t actually normal to be a “tradwife”, and lots of historical findings have brought this to the front, clearly showing that women were fierce and heroic warriors, early women were hunters, and anything but relegated to only the home in the past.

To say that women have never worked, and only have been traditional wives at home, gathering and so on, is just a clear, blatant bias of colourless patriarchy being shoved down our throats to brainwash us into thinking we only have one role, when in fact, it has not been the case in the past.

It is all propaganda to make you think that women are meant to be in the home, and that it is normal, and furthermore, is used to limit women’s rights, autonomy and lifestyles by also devaluing the important work done at home.

It is like they have tried and found every single possible loophole to keep women down.

A sweet treat

Pistachio cream and kaya…

I lied. have not recently discovered this pistachio cream. I actually came across it many years ago, slathered into and on top of a doughnut in Toronto, then later in Montreal, but this is the first time my pea brain finally turned on and said – but… I could just buy the cream the put it on ANYTHING I LIKE … That, and kaya (a coconut cream jam), are my current two go-tos for replacing the palm oil-laden Nutella.

Note: Palm oil is great in that it is tasteless, works well, is chemically perfect for spreads and the like, but it is impacting the environment and destroying the natural habitat of the animals who live there.

What else I have been watching

“VICTORIA BECKHAM” – Netflix

Netflix came out with a tri-part documentary called Victoria Beckham, and I started hearing about people watching it, so I also gave it a go and rather liked it. She is for all intents and purposes, not what she is portrayed to be in the media.

Of course, this series is very angled towards creating a certain bias in her favour, but I genuinely like her. I was neutral on the Spice Girls (I liked a few of their songs back in the day), and I can’t say I am a superfan or anything, but I was also neutral on Posh Spice, as I am with most celebrities if I am to be honest. I do think that once she started her clothing line, she became far more interesting.

I will admit, her eyeliner is a great product, and her clothes are on the whole, rather nice if albeit a bit too starched for my tastes which is odd because I like her personal style as she doesn’t always wear formfitting, super tight clothing and has an interesting sense about layer and proportion.

Spotlight on Art

Isabelle Menin

Isabelle Menin is a painter I actually discovered off the show Bull (one of the founding partners of the show treats herself to a piece of hers for having “made it”), and once I started researching into her artworks, I was drawn into her fantastical, dreamy landscape. It is mixed media, meaning she does the painting but then she digitally splices in photographs she has taken of flowers over top of the digital picture of the painting and this is the result.

The one pictured in the image is New Rome 09.

Luxurious bedding

LUCAS DU TERTRE

Lucas du Tertre is my new go-to for bedding. Their prints are whimsical, fun, the cotton is of excellent quality, and I am particularly enamoured with their quilted bedspreads.

They are stuffed with 100% cotton and the print itself is also 100% cotton, made in India and they are very soft, comfortable and perfect for snuggling up underneath on a futon, or, using it as an interim blanket when it is a bit too hot for a duvet but a bit too cold to go with just a top sheet.

Recent repurchases..

MYLEE NAIL WRAPS (Runner up: OHORA)

That is it. Mylee is my go-to brand. I will not bother with the other cheapie versions I have tried to find and save money on, and because I only do pedicures with them, every pack comes with enough for at least 4 pedicures because I cut many of the stickers in half to use on my toes (they don’t need the full sticker). I only messed up a few of the stickers in my first attempt but now that I am pretty much a pro at it, I am confident I can make one pack last for 4 pedicures.

(Runner up brand: Ohora, if you can’t get Mylee.)

If you want to know how to apply and take them off, you can read this post here I wrote on the subject.

Memes that made me cackle

About the louvre heist of 2025

We all know about the heist right? If not, read this.

And these, made me cackle out loud (my partner too!)..

Source

What is in my cart as of late..

Marin Montagut everything

Marin Montagut is a store I desperately want to visit in person because it seems like the perfect mix of whimsy, colour and in some cases, practicality. I put everything I wanted into a cart and then fainted at the price tag (well over €3000 *gulp*)… so I am going to hit a milestone first before I treat myself to no more than THREE things. *side eye*

Tailoring hacks

Tightening the waist…

So it is not that I lost weight or anything, but more that when I buy pants, I want to be comfortable, not an encased sausage… ergo, the waist always ends up being an inch or two too large when it is loose everywhere else.

These tightening pin hooks are also a great solution if you are anything like me – needing to adjust the waist often but without committing to a permanent change at a tailor.

In this case, I can’t always make it to my tailor (but I also want to wear certain items…) so I found these quick pins that will tighten up any waist (and doesn’t look too bad, if I say so myself), but be forewarned, I have only used them on jeans or thick material where the pinprick marks won’t damage the fabric.

Alternatively, you can also just buy these jean pin buttons to add another jeans button that is farther (yes it will look skewed when you button it to that button, but who is really staring at your jeans button?), and it is a far more comfortable solution than these hooks, which, when applied to the BACK of my jeans, poked into my back when I sat down.

If you have anything really delicate, DO NOT USE THESE!!

Try these pant side clips instead.

Vibes Inspo

No notes, she is fabulous

SUper organization

FOLDABLE stacking CRATEs WITH DOORS

I have been trying to find pieces of furniture (end tables, see my January 2025 Things List), to fit this very odd corner in my office.

Actually, 3 odd corners.

They are so bizarre in their measurements, not being more than 50cm wide, but not taller than 80cm… that I finally ended up stumbling upon these stackable plastic crate things that work out perfectly.

They hold just enough for an A4 (8” x 11”) piece of paper in width (not the length) on the inside. I will say the quality isn’t amazing, but considering what I paid versus what I was planning on paying, these will do the job quite nicely.

They fold out, and down, like those foldable crates, and can be easily transported from one place to another if need be. I will say that the snapping of the sides into place left a lot to be desired – they don’t seem to satisfactorily snap into place with any real conviction – but once you get the top on them to hold it all together, it does the job for light to medium-weight items.

I wouldn’t store anything extremely heavy in them – they are plastic after all – but they do the job for arts and crafts, papers, office supplies and the like.

Please note: Buy the EXACT number of stacked crates that you need because each crate that stacks on top of the other, becomes its top, and they only give you ONE top in the purchase. I thought I was being clever buying 6 of them to split them into 3, only to realize that 3 crates would get a top and the other 3 would be left topless.

I found a hack for that however, and used a sturdy wooden frame with a glass etching as the picture that I had lying around that was quite sturdy, and placed it across the top as an interim cover of sorts. It has worked out very nicely, if I do say so myself, as it is in a hidden corner and not very noticeable that the frame is larger than the crate.

Webcam privacy

LITTLE STICKERS TO COVER THE CAMS..

I am a moderate freak about privacy in real life, online.. you name it. I am the woman who has a crosscut shredder, shredding scissors, privacy ink rollers and I scan every piece of paper so that I can shred and recycle the physical copy.

The one thing I didn’t get around to cracking was the webcam bit. In the interim, I just put some electrical tape over the webcam, but these webcam sticker slider things are a far better solution so that I don’t have to keep peeling off the tape when I want to use the webcam and discarding it for another fresh piece when it wears out.

Honestly, you don’t NEED to buy it, but I have purchased it for all my laptops especially my work one so I can tell them my camera is broken and no one’s the wiser. 😉

Save. Spend. Splurge.